


Alternate Realities Vol 14 - Backups

by MARKSE



Series: HUMANS FAN FICTION - Reformatted Works for easier reading [10]
Category: Cabin Pressure, Humans (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-15
Updated: 2016-09-15
Packaged: 2018-08-15 04:24:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 39
Words: 34,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8042521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MARKSE/pseuds/MARKSE





	1. Chapter 1

Niska returns to the group having parked the prototype in the hanger. Mattie's on the phone looking very worried. "What's wrong?"

Iain holds his phone out, his text messages from Eric visible.

Niska takes it and reads, stares at Mattie. "No position updates? No radio contact?"

Mattie shakes her head. "Yes. At the factory, fast as possible, thanks." she hangs up. "A1 and L1 can't be found. A2 says Nichola is acting weird."

"Weird how?"

"She never leaves Eddy's side."

"Would you? He's a dish."

"She says never. Not for a second, like she's guarding him."

Iain does a tiny nod at the phone, "Scroll back, see the video."

Niska watches the short clip Eric had filmed of the bug fitted into the back of the car seat, "Shit. We've seen that before."

Danny shoves his hands in his pockets, it was that or make angry fists, "Has to be Hobb, there's no other explanation. And if your fork is guarding Eddy I'd say he's had a mind job."

"What if Eric's the one to have been turned into a Hobb, she's protecting Eddy from him?"

Danny frowns, "Surely if that was the case she'd have been in touch to let us know? And would Eric have sent that?"

"Maybe. Maybe not. It could be a trap."

They all stand there waiting for others to arrive and talk about everything that had happened from Tommy's tick bite to the current day.

Sally looks at her partner, "You were Iain Shark? Not Iain Bubois?"

"I was. Shark wasn't my birth name. I gave it all up to have a life with you."

She steps in front and grabs his head, gives him a passionate kiss. "You put us before all that?"

"Oui mon amour."

She throws her arms around him and holds him tight, "Thank you, I had no idea you'd made such a sacrifice."

He wraps his around her, "I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Correction, pump cycle."

There's the sound of gravel being thrown and they turn to see George and Isobel in their new car. Seconds later Mia arrived on her bike, picked dead flies off her nice dress and pulled off her crash helmet. DC3 and the Audi R8 were seconds behind. As they're all about to head up the steps there's the sound of engine breaking and they turn to see a Range Rover in the distance. They wait for it and find Jimmy at the wheel, David and Samantha in the back, Quench in the passenger seat.


	2. Chapter 2

They all stood in a large circle on the factory floor.

Jimmy looked at Mattie, "So what do we know? Give us everything."

"Not a lot. Eric found a bug in the passenger seat of a car. There may be others that haven't been uncovered. A1 and L1 can't be reached. A2 and A3 have searched the house and gardens and can't find them. They're too deep to fit into that stupid lift to check the carpark."

"Could they have flown off somewhere?"

"They would have sent GPS updates, the last update was from the front drive and the drones are still there."

"Where exactly?"

"On the grass."

"Can you show me?"

"Sure." she gets the map on her phone, zooms and hands it over.

"Hmm. GPS and maps like that can have a degree of inaccuracy. Can you ask A2 to stand in that spot?"

"Sure." Moments later a dot joins the map.

"Where did you ask her to stand?"

"At the edge of the grass."

"Look at this." he hands the phone back. A2 was further onto the grass. "Ask her to slowly move towards the house. Keep her moving until you see her at the edge of the grass on the map, the same spot A1 and L1 were last seen at."

Mattie does so, "Okay done. The dot jumped."

"She's now standing above the car lift. I'll put money on it. Ask her where she is."

There's a few seconds of silence.

"Frigging hell, you're right, the map is out. That's exactly where she is."

Quench is looking uneasily at Jimmy, "So they went for a car. That place is a fucking nightmare mate. Three ways in, all easily boobytrapped, no cover, no way to check them before you try them."

"Send me in. I'm heavy enough to fool the lift into thinking I'm a small car."

Jimmy turns to see the MUS behind him.

"Hello James. And if it goes boom?"

"You build me a nice new body. With a few new mods, restore me from backup."

"Who's got the fob to operate the lift?"

Iain closes his eyes, "Merde. One's in the key locker. The other in the Jeep. I thought I was done with them."

"No spare?"

"No. Just the two."

Mattie licks her teeth, sucks air and sighs, "Let Leona and I worry about that."

"Why? What can she do?"

"A lot you don't need to know about."

"If she's going so am I!"

"Nis? Is that wise?"

"If it's Eddy and Nichola then you need someone who can take her on. Someone like me."

"And you'll want George and I to help sort her out, strip Hobb from Eddy."

"Thanks Dad."

David looks at Leo, "Welcome son. What's our reason for visiting? Do we go in under the cover of darkness or stroll in with a party mood?"

"Cars. We're there for the cars. To bring a number back for a charity auction in the UK."

Jimmy nods, "Good idea. Dan, your throat microphone David was wearing at Toby's party, how many do you have? Enough for all the fabs?"

"Yes, but it will be a bit of a giveaway, everyone with a choker."

"Then we need to come up with a new way to fit the mic. Fast."

"If you can think of a way please say Mattie."

"Let me think about it. Anyone got a fan?"

"Fan?"

"So I can safely overclock."

The servos in James can be heard spinning up, "On it Mattie!"

Jimmy watches him stride away, turns back to the group. "So we're all going, we'll need to get there in minimal transport or it will raise suspicions. Is Gerti ready?"

Danny nods, "Last shakedown is done, she's got her certificate."

"Great. Iain, is the land beyond the gardens large and flat enough to land her on?"

"Define flat? It's overgrown in a lot of places. Some areas have a lot of stones."

Danny puts up a hand. "Swear on your lives to keep a secret. All of you."

"Dan?"

"Can you keep a secret?" they all agree.

"Iain the reason the car doesn't shred the tyres is because it can _feel_ the road, know what's going on. The tyre surface has the same sensors as you and I. Two sets of coils enable your car's AI to power the wheel sensors up and get data back. We could make Gerti new tyres."

"How long will that take?"

"We have everything on site. CAD, electronics, mould making gear, pouring, milling machine for metal parts. Add fitting, maybe nine to ten hours? If we get a number of James helping out."

"That's a long time to wait."

"If we go right now we'll arrive at a time that might get them suspecting something is wrong. It would be better to leave in the morning."

"True."

James returns with a warehouse fan and mains extension, gets it cooling Mattie.

"James, can another come with you? We'll go into both lifts at once."

"Certainly Jimmy."

Quench grins, "I know you hate guns, what about a load of those things Fred told me about? The shock bolts?"

"We've not used them in ages. I've no idea if they're still good."

Niska leaves the group and heads to Gem James industrial sewing machine, walks past it and opens his cupboard. "Good, he's got plenty."

"Nis?"

"Where is James?"

"With Cindy, they're behind getting ready for London Fashion Week. She's taken the idea I had for Mattie's party outfit and run with it. Some of the outfits look like they'd be at home in a Victoria's Secret show. Just swimwear not underwear."

James turns noisily to Niska, "Why do you ask Commander?"

"I want everyone to have kevlar vests to go under their dresses or shirts. Nichola's a straight fork of me so also a knife expert."

Mattie comes out of her overclocking trance and pulls her phone out. The short vibration to say a message had come in had felt like minutes of it slowly wobbling.

"Hmm. Has anyone told anyone else of our plans?" she gets frowns and nos. "Weird coincidence then. The Whitmore is asking if she can buy the all white Porsche 911 Carrera Sport Cabriolet from the collection. Says she knows the funds will go to the charity so is willing to pay more than market value to secure it. Also if she wears her favourite long white dress can Leo do a photoshoot please?"

"Sure, we'd give her a good rate on the car wouldn't we? Mates rates?"

"Of course. Just high enough to make her happy she's contributed."

Jimmy shakes his head, "Sure you want to put her at risk?"

Quench pats his team mate on his back, "I'll look after the lady. She'll help us look less threatening, more legit."

"You stick to her like you're her shadow."

"Of course mate."

"No closer though. I know you."


	3. Chapter 3

Martin frowns at the tyres, "Douglas. Do you see what I see?"

"Way up in the sky, little lamb?"

"I'm not playing next song lines, look."

Douglas walks over, "I see tyre if I'm not mistaken."

"Okay. Let me ask it another way. What do you _not_ see?"

He stares for a moment. "Dirt. I don't see any dirt. It's brand new." he runs to the left wing, "THESE TOO!" at the right he scratches his head, "THEY ALL ARE?"

Martin joins him and crouches down, "And look at the wheels the tyres are on. They're perfect, no sign of a mark. Why?"

"Beats me. All I know is they wanted a 10:00 flight, some urgent issue in France. Just us two, no cabin crew." he gets out a small notebook from his back pocket and scribbles something.

"What are you writing?"

"Just us two, no cabin crew. It's got a nice sound don't you think?"

"Still working on MJN Rap incase they have another song night?"

"One can live in hope."


	4. Chapter 4

Half way through the flight Danny visits the first of the fabs with a tray of tiny electronics. "Quench, if you could unbutton your shirt please."

"Tested them on anyone yet or am I your lab rat?"

"Got a strong feeling you're racing through a maze to find a lump of food?"

"No?"

"Well you should."

"Ha! Come on then. Sit back down you lot!"

Danny turns to see spectators, "Ladies? Really?"

Mattie folds her arms and gives Quench a look, "The two Laura's are getting those. And the toilet isn't big enough for two people."

He gives her a slow head shake, "Nice try. They can sit up front out of sight while Danny does them."

"Meh. Bloody spoil sport."

"Not getting any?"

"Plenty. But a little extra eye candy never hurt."

Jimmy shakes his head, "If any of you tell my wife I've shown you this I'll leave your sales team."

"What and why?"

"My pec dance." he unbuttons and removes his shirt. "Da, da da, da daaa daa dada.." his pecs are jumping up and down, sometimes both, others just one.

"That's grand!"

"Frigging awesome! How do you get one to move on it's own?"

"Practice, lots of it."

"Hey! Leo, think you could learn to do this?"

"I can see, maybe."

Jimmy lifts one side of his mouth in a crooked smile, "Dancing pecks prove women can focus on two things at once."

"Oi! That was our poster slogan about men not your's about women."

"Works both ways."

Danny connects some fine wires to the microphones, "These plugs lock in, inspired by that nasty tick that got Tommy. I'll clip them off when we're done. The thin transmitter tapes to the back below the belt line like Fred's first power coil, it should be invisible under clothes."

"You need us to drop our trousers to?"

Mattie unfolds her arms, "Okay ladies, time we went back to our seats. Dan, show me what to do and I'll get them done."

The Whitmore wiggles her jaw left and right, pinches her nose and gently blows. She wiggles her jaw once more. "That's better. It feels like I've got an ear full of wax."

'Can you hear me?'

"Wow! Loud and clear Danny!"

'Good. If you hear a high pitched beep twice it's getting low on power. The power cell is tiny, it will need recharging.'

"How do I take it out to do that?"

"The special locking tweezers. Or you can leave it in and hold a charge coil up to your head. They should be fine, there's three overcharge protection circuits so they shouldn't explode."

"Explode! Now you tell me!"

Mattie rests a hand on Laura's knee, "We've used them before at parties and shows, put some through thousands of charges, zero problems. And Fred would do surgery to get the remains out if one did pop."

"Jesus Mary and .."

"Relax! Fred designed the case such that if it did blow the sides would grab onto your ear canal, the force would plug the opening to the inner ear, the tiny blast and I do mean tiny would blow out of your ear like a small puff. We've run thousands of simulations and then deliberately blown some up in pigs heads just to prove it's okay. The pigs were already dead by the way, from the local butchers."

"Okay. As it's you lot it can stay in. Anyone else and I'd be crushing it underfoot and shouting No! Get me out of here now!"

Danny steps towards the front, "You ladies decent now?"

"Yeah."

He gets to the front row, "The Veyron project is off to a good start, fancy the 911 being electric?"

"Can it be part electric?"

"What do you mean?"

"Just the engine? So I can use the gears and clutch? And could it make a noise like a proper engine, like the trick at the party?"

Daniel's jaw drops, "The market for such a thing could be _huge_! Okay, quick vote from DCL members here, do we offer The Whitmore a position in the firm?"

All the hands shoot up.

"As I hoped, a full house, you're in."

"I can't commit much.."

"All you needed to do is submit one great product idea. Job's done. That gets you DCL Healthcare, Priority emergency extraction from any nasty location by the nearest Angel and a company car, insurance paid."

"So I can't buy the car?"

"If you really must."


	5. Chapter 5

"Petits Anges ATC this is MJN requesting permission to attempt a landing."

"Hi Martin, Sam here. We got Mattie's message, James and I moved the biggest stones, we've used them to mark out a rough runway."

"Thanks Sam. Gerti, the controls are all yours."

"Thanks Martin." she turns on the intercom, "Strap in and hold on ladies and gentlemen, this could get rough."

Sam's idea of a big stone was anything larger than four centimetres, so what remained was no problems for her tyres although she did feel it. She opens the thrust reversal flaps on her engines and goes to full thrust and breaks.

Douglas smiles at Martin, "Nice work Gerti! Text book landing."

"Thank you!"

"Ladies and gentlemen please remember to remove your shoes before using the emergency escape slide. If you rip it I'll feel it."

In the cabin Mattie lifts herself off her seat a little and turns to see Danny, 'You didn't upgrade that to a skin did you?'

'No, just added a sensor so she'll know there's a rip from the pressure drop.'

Martin is standing at the door, "Strictly winners first."

Leo frowns, "Winners of what?"

"Strictly."

"You're not making sense."

Joe rolls his eyes, "Strictly Come Dancing 2016. Laura won it."

"Did she? Lawyer and dance winner?"

"The other Laura."

"Ah!"

Laura shakes her head, "Can you all call me The Whitmore, or just Whitmore or some other nickname? It will be far less confusing."

Niska opens her eyes wide having run a mass of dictionary searches, "Got one! Whitmore. Whit More. More whit than normal. Whittier."

"Awe Nis that's lovely, thanks!"

"So as I was saying Strictly winners first."

"Thank you Martin, can you dance?"

"Me? Not very well."

"I'll teach you some moves."

Martin drops his shoulders as if a huge weight had been lifted, "Thank you thank you thank you! Her Serene Highness Princess Theresa Gustafa Bonaventura of Lichtenstein, Countess of Spondheim, and Protector-Extraordinary of the Cantons of Nim says Dad, the King, is insisting we attend his grand ball and I've been beside myself in fear."

"Don't panic, it will be slow dances."

"But how will I remember what to do!"

"I've heard a lot about you Captain Crieff. We'll turn each dance into an operating manual."

"No need to take the.."

"I'm not. Did you know the French created dance notation for ballet? We just need to find a notation that works for you and write everything down."

"That would be life saving. I'd die of embarrassment otherwise. How can I repay you?"

She turns and smiles at Mattie, "Don't. Pay it forward."


	6. Chapter 6

Whittier kicks off her heals and grabs them by the strap, looks up to see they had company at the bottom of the slide, "HI EDDY! HI NICHOLA!" 'Can you all hear me?'

'Yes. Act cool, stick with the car script.'

Having two microphones superglued to her collarbones had been worrying, Danny assured her that he could clip the wires off, the skin shedding cells would get them off if the glue remover didn't work. 'Okay.' she jumps and slides.

Quench steps forward, "It should be ladies first but I made a promise, excuse me." he jumps arms crossed and tight to his chest.

"What are you doing here?"

"Hi Nichola, we're here to pick up more cars."

"Why didn't you inform us?"

"Eric knows. As do Sam and James."

Mattie slides down making a weee noise like a child. "That was fun! They should allow holiday makers to do that!"

"But you didn't inform us."

Mattie gets to her feet, "We thought you'd be busy finding staff, we didn't want to disturb you."

"You should have said."

Mattie frowns at the frosty comment, "Why? Leo and I own the place on behalf of the foundation, not you. If anyone calls the shots is us not either of you. To be blunt you're our staff."

Nichola gives her an angry look. "You still should have said something."

"Why?"

Nichola grits her teeth. "Being nice."

Mia gets up from the slide, gives Eddy and Nichola a kiss on the cheek, "Is Eric about? Gerti didn't have any food onboard and the fabs are hungry."

"Sure, he's inside somewhere."

"Thanks. Lovely to see you again, I'll go help rustle something up. There's no rush, the ferry booking is a late one, we can all chill out for a bit." she walks off at a gentle pace to find Eric. 'Did you see that look she gave me Mattie?'

'Yeah. I don't think she's at all happy with the thought of us being in different places. She can't keep an eye on us.'

'At least our WiFi enabled version of Toby's Crowd DJ box is working. Hub and spoke private communications rather than talking broadcast that Nic could eavesdrop. Got the second hub Mia?'

'Yes, I'll drop it on the front lawn and stamp it into the grass.'

'Not too fast you'll shatter the case.'

'Okay Danny.'

Laura adjusts her skirt, "I'll help Mia. The boys will probably want to drool over the cars. Want to join me Matts?"

"I'll hang out with Eddy and Nichola, find out how the recruiting is going. Is US Mattie still here?"

"She's flown back to continue her training."

"Shame, it would have been nice to talk about her working here. Plenty time for that. Shall we?" she motions to the gardens.

Eddy scans the plane, "As you say, no rush. We'll wait for everyone to get off."


	7. Chapter 7

Eddy folds his arms and watches the tail end as the door slowly lowers to the ground. "You brought cargo?"

David turns briefly to see what he was looking at, "A couple more James came along."

"Why?"

"Why not?"

"But why?"

"These two were leads on the factory and hanger builds in the UK."

"So?"

"Gem James as he likes to be known is a dress maker, 211 and 213 are interested in mechanical engineering. They're all finding their specialty. As I'm sure you will Nichola given time. As you found medicine doctor."

Nichola huffs and heads to the cargo door.

George watches her walk off, "Someone got out of bed the wrong side this morning."

"I heard that George!"

"Good! Then stop being like old Niska!"

She spins around, walks at speed and gets face to face, snarling, "I _am_ old Niska. She didn't fork off new code and memories, she denied me that. I'm a restore from 2019!"

Mattie watches Eddy look away uneasily. Not shocked, guilt.

George nods, "I can see why you'd be a little angry."

'I can hear that through Whittier's mic, it's not something I've done!'

"A LITTLE! I'M FURIOUS!"

'Not my doing!'

"Why didn't you say something at the party?"

"I didn't realise at the time. Then I had people talking in the morning about things I didn't know. A full check of all my fact store revealed the gap. She doesn't want me being her, or maybe not knowing some things she does."

"Marriage to Odi for instance?"

"I worked that out from the party." she backs off and heads back to Gerti.

'Not my doing I swear!'

Mattie watches her step up the ramp, 'What the frig is she looking for?'

'No idea Sis, if she damages her in any way I'll be furious.'

'You and me both. Someone should keep an eye on her.'

'I'll go.'

Danny finds her sat in the pilots seat talking to Gerti.

"Why is this aircraft sounding like my sister?"

"The voice was modelled on the speech patterns of Gemma Chan."

"No. This sounds like Mia!"

"And Mia was modelled on a young Gemma."

"Impossible! They were both at the party! Mia is the oldest of us all, what you're saying is impossible!"

"Did you talk to Gemma?"

She frowns, "With all the dress and swimsuit changes I'm not sure. Possibly. Possibly not. You're lying, more hiding the truth!" she gets up and storms off.

Danny puckers and blows, "Phew. That could have gone far worse. Trying to explain David's DNA profiling research would have been too complicated."

"How can she not know about me?"

"She says Niska did a restore from 2019, Nis denies it."

The tone of the voice changes slightly, "So she doesn't know about David? All the things that happened on the many cruises? The Automatons war? The updated bikes and Sister Synth US? Odi?"

"Nope."

"We didn't meet Tim until far later. So if Nis used a recent backup someone purged all the newer data and then reloaded memories of Eddy. With the clock set back. Oh dear."

"Why oh dear?"

"She doesn't know all of the many things that made her a better person, she's her mostly angry old self. Does she realise the George outside is the same old George she met as a fab?"

Danny looks suspiciously at the array of display panels. "What code rev are you running?"

There's silence.

"Gerti, I asked you a question."

"I know you asked Gerti a question."

"Then please answer it."

"I'm afraid I can't answer the.."

He interrupts, "You've just mentioned a load of shit Gerti wasn't built with, you.. " the penny drops. She'd said _we_ and _asked Gerti_. "MIA! WHAT THE FUCK!"

"Danny, I.."

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING IN THERE!"

"I've always wanted to fly high and see the sun and the moon properly from above the clouds, not through a little window."

"So you thought you'd just sneak in and replace Gerti with your own code?"

"I've not replaced her."

"Hi Danny, I'm still here."

"WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK! You're _both_ in there?"

"Yes, just not fighting like I did with Anita."

Danny hears running in the cabin and realises he'd not muted. "Oh crap, everyone knows."

Mattie comes bursting onto the flight deck all excited, "Frigging hell Mia! What's it like?"

"Which bit?"

"All of it!"

"Great fun actually. We could do with some more sensors, maybe a few on the wing surfaces to feel air turbulence. Maybe ease up on the count in the tyres, a few stones were a little painful."

Danny sits back, "I'm going mad, I'm creating a world from a bunch of bloody Pixar movies!"

Moments later Leo joins them, "Mia I respect your right to live how you please, but stuck in an airplane? Really?"

"Why not? I'll get to travel, Gerti and the MJN crew will be good company."

He shakes his head, "You're call. It sounds a bit crazy to me."

"And you forking to become L1SYNTH wasn't? We both get to fly."

"You have a point there."

There's a shout from outside, "Lunch is ready!"


	8. Chapter 8

Mattie looks at the two at the end of the table, "Are you going to join us for lunch or play design?"

Danny doesn't turn away from the laptop, just puts up a hand, "Give us ten, we're on a roll."

"Is that in your man bag all the time?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Carpe momentum."

"Like carpe diem? Seize the moment?"

"That's it."

"But you're a synth."

"The fabs I work with aren't. When I said we're on a role it's really more Joe's on a roll. He's had an idea for the engine replacement for Laura's 911."

"Really? Dad? Can't it wait?"

"You must remember what it used to be like Mats, you have a great idea and all of a sudden pop it's gone. You've got to do something with them when they hit."

"I do. Roosters. I've had my fair share."

Joe taps Danny on the shoulder, "Done, like that."

"Awesome. Hit print."

"Sure?"

"Yeah, go for it."

Mattie looks to the pair, "Print? Doing a mockup?"

Danny turns and grins, "We've not built a cutting edge JIT factory for the hell of it, we'll fit the new engine and power cell when we're back in the UK tomorrow."

Whittier's eye's are on stalks, "Tomorrow? That's.."

"Steady! It will need the M.O.T people to give it a new license before you can take it on the road. We'll do tests on the runway first."

"That's still pretty amazing, I thought this stuff took years?"

"It used to. With Just In Time manufacturing we can 3D print large things like engine blocks with the sintering machine, bake it for added strength, put it on the CNC rig to mill out holes, tap bolt mounts and the likes. It's too expensive a method for mass production but for proving ideas like Joe's it's ideal."

Mattie looks back to see Nichola shoulder to shoulder with Eddy. She smiles warmly at Niska as she passes the bean and grain salad. 'That's good. One thing that's not.' she glances at Nichola.

Niska smiles back, "That looks lovely, thanks." 'I hadn't expected the end result to be like this. She was fine in the UK, here at the party too, why's she changed?'

'Eddy? Is he how you remember him?'

'No. But a lot of time has passed.'

'He had a guilty look earlier. My money is on him being a Hobb. He must have been around Eddy for a while to pick up his ways, he's not like the others.' Mattie takes the bowl back and places it on the placemat. "Eddy, what was your day like, that first day you met?"

"Busy. Very busy. Then she stepped in and lit up the room."

'How vague is that for frig's sake! That could describe any meeting with another woman at any time.'

Leona sits back down, "Sorry, dodgy tummy, what have I missed?"

"Just small talk. What have you eaten this morning?"

"The usual." 'I know the key fob frequencies and codes.'

'Good.'

"Mum I'm not feeling hungry, can I go explore with James and James?"

"Sure."

Nichola grabs a steak knife and holds it by the blade ready to throw. "Sit back down!"

"What the frig?" Mattie bumps at ten times normal speed, 'Leo, where are the shock bolt guns?'

'In the bag by the window.'

'Pointing up or down?'

'Up.'

'Leaning which way?'

'Not sure.'

'Think!'

'I did, the top is covered by tissue paper.'

'All the brains and cores and we f up with some simple planning oversight. A2 can you get ready to taser Eddy, a light chock to disable him?'

'Already aiming at him.'

'And I'm pointing at Nichola.'

'Under the table A3?'

'Yes. Han Solo style.'

What happened next caught the humans by surprise. Mattie went to stand and Nichola threw the knife at her. Niska plucked it from the air just as it got to Mattie's face and returned it towards Nichola. A2 and 3 fired their charges, Eddy was hit but Nichola had managed to move fast and they glanced off.

There was a blur of knives as the two went to war at each other, hands alternating between throwing, catching and grabbing yet another knife from the table. The rest quickly slid underneath for cover as the number of knives in the air rapidly rose into double digits like some sick circus act.

It was all over in seconds.

Nichola was catching and throwing knives one moment, frozen and throwing sparks the next as she toppled backwards to the marble floor.

Having seen the pin cushion of a synth hit the floor with a loud thud the gang start to come out of cover.

"Frigging hell!"

Mia looks at her sadly, Nichola was still a fork of Niska, "What a mess!"

Leona sneered at the inactive synth, "What a bitch! You don't mess with my friends or family or _I_ mess with you."

"Frigging hell! What did you do?"

"I forced an instant power down."

" _HOW_?"

"Don't ask Mum!"

The others get out from under the table.

"Bloody hell! She's going to want a lot of skin packs!"

Niska gives him a mischievous look, "You think Joe? She's going to need more than skin packs, those blades will have done a lot of internal damage."

Danny shakes his head, "Best David and George sort out Eddy, we'll recycle her and make another. James, can you talk to the guys in the UK, get the machine going? Crank it up to eleven, I want that new body here yesterday."

"But Danny.."

"Get the skin chemicals mixing earlier than normal, I want as much running in parallel as possible. Get as many MUS on it as needed, you all get whatever upgrades you want as a bonus."

"But even then.."

"Do it! We can't drug Eddy for long, how do we explain missing days?"

Niska puts a hand up, "I've got a faster alternative. Make the new body for me. Blonde. I'll dye my hair and call myself Nichola. And put the newest fastest strongest actuators in the build. I was seriously worried I wasn't keeping up with the knives she was throwing."

"And how do we explain your absence here?"

"I flew back with MJN, the rest of you are driving home remember?"

"We haven't booked a ferry, that was just.."

"Well you better hurry up and do it!"

Sam rolls Eddy onto his front, places a couple of cushions under his face and makes a fist. There's a thud as she strikes the back of his head then turns him back over.

"What the frig.."

"He slipped and fell backwards, knocked himself out. Suffered short term memory loss."

Eric had just stepped back into the room, "He did?"

"Of course not. But that's what he'll accept with his memories fixed and a nice bump on the back of his head."

Mattie gives her a stern look, "You could have broken his neck!"

"Give me some credit, I may be big but I'm still a piece of precision engineering."

Eric asks what had just happened and is told about the events with Hobb. He voluntarily has a check and hurriedly puts a pendant chain around his neck. "Can you do the same for the gardener and her child please?"

"Can we go look at the cars then Mum?"

"Sure, Iain do you have an inventory?"

"Eric, you have one from the insurance review, can you print us a copy please?"


	9. Chapter 9

The two James units go down first under Leona's control, return moments later to say there's no sign of a boobytrap. A2 and 3 stay above ground to keep watch.

"Oh wow, look at that apple green Bently! It's gorgeous!"

Leo smiles and whispers having toggled his software mute, "Fancy making out in that?"

'Ems would for sure!'

Mattie rolls her eyes and bumps privately, 'He's heard you through my mic! Frigging hell they're sensitive.'

'Why go for the hardware? You could have run software like me.'

'I'm using both. I wanted Whittier to feel more confident in it.'

Leo frowns, "I didn't see this car here before. They've all been moved. Every car has been moved. Why?"

'No idea, let me ask Eric.'

They hear the conversation via Joe's microphones. The insurance people had wanted to know that every car was in working order, the ones in the front car park had been moved to the back and visa versa.

'Back car park? There's _another_ car park?'

The distant James responds, 'Yes Mattie, full of cars.'

'Frigging hell! If I read out this list can you see if you can see each of them?'

'Certainly.'

It's not long before they have the list ticked off. There's one missing. A High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle. HMMWV. Aka the Humvee.

'It's not my end Mattie. Nowhere to hide that over here.'

'It's not our side either.'

'So they took it somewhere?'

'No idea. Iain, could the Humvee block the GPS signals and their radio transmissions?'

'I won it off an Arab prince, he said it's got uprated protection so quite possibly." 

'So they drove off somewhere? Crap. They could be any frigging place. James you might as well walk over to our side and join us.'

'Okay, see you in a while.'

Mattie grabs Leo's hand, slaps her pocket, "Come with me a moment."

She opens the door to the Bently, "In you hop Bunny."

"You don't want to go looking for them?"

"I'm sure they'll pop up soon when they step outside of the Humvee and come back online."

~~~

They're kissing passionately when there's a tap at the window.

She whispers ever so quietly, "Good job we didn't have our hands elsewhere. Who is it?"

Leo turns his head, "James, from the other side, he's not looking very happy."

Mattie opens the door a little, "Sorry James, long walk?"

"A sad one yes. I have bad news for you."

She adjusts her clothes and slides over to get out, "Sad how?"

"Half way along the tunnel is the Humvee."

"Crap! Are they in there?"

"I don't know. I had to do the walk in the dark, the tunnel lights are all dead."

"Shit shit shit." 'A2! Can you come down here please!'

~~~

A2 slides her protective cover open and shines white light down the tunnel. With the dust James had disturbed it reflects a lot and doesn't illuminate that far ahead.

Joe, Leo, Ian and Mattie are following behind.

"How long is this frigging thing?"

"As long as it should be. Think how long it would take you to walk through the house, gardens and field to reach Gerti."

The Humvee comes into view and James peers into the window, "Oh no!"

"What?"

"Leo, hold Mattie back please!"

"James! What have you seen!"

"Mattie, best you return to the cars with the others."

"JAMES! WHAT HAVE YOU SEEN!"

~~~

George puts a hand on Mattie's shoulder, waits for the sobbing to stop. "We've found a message from her, scratched into the paintwork of a door pillar. Even if you'd flown out straight away it would have been many hours too late, she'd already gone."

"What did she write?"

"With you for eternity L1. Love you forever, A1. She wrote the duate and time underneath."

The crying returned and intensified for a while. Laura and Joe watched, wiped away their own tears, unable to console their daughter.

"You must think I'm crazy. It's like I'm mourning myself. Only she was like a twin sister."

Laura smiles sadly, "She was. As are all the other angels."

L1's attempt to cause the Humvee some damage hadn't worked, A1 was still trapped. Her own charge had been getting low. Not wanting to run out of power and have her code and fact store fall into the wrong hands, Hobbs, she'd scratched the message and used the final resort.

~~~

Leo glanced quickly in the rear view mirror. They were in one of the four seater modern Porsches, the apple green Bently behind, the convoy heading to the ferry. Mattie was sat quietly in the back looking blankly out of the window, focused on nothing. The car would be auctioned off, the memory of being sat in the back and getting the bad news too painful to keep it, no matter how much she loved the green.

Danny was driving the Humvee, the remains of the two friends in the back. Another vehicle that had to go.

Mia was sat up front with Whittier in the 911, they'd got the last few spaces on the evening's late ferry, not quite enough to drive a car each.

~~~

"Sarge, fancy one of these for yourself?"

"A Ferrari? Mmm. Maybe. I'll have to talk to the boss."

"Mattie?"

"No dummy, my wife!"

"Oh, right. Same boat as me then. Makes for an easier life."

"And you? What would you pick?"

Quench rubs the stubble on his chin, "You'll think I'm crazy."

"Already do mate, we both have been for years."

"True. I'd go for that 1932 Vanden Plas Tourer."

"Christ that is going old school. Why not something like this?"

"I reckon I'd kill myself going crazy."

"Yeah, talking of killed, those two synths going like that has got me thinking about George's offer."

"Me too."

~~~

In the fortnight that followed the cars were all sold, Leo taking over as auctioneer. His wife was there, but it was mostly a case of lights on, mind not home. She was distant, still mourning the loss of A1 and L1SYNTH. Then early morning her phone rang an alarm and she snapped back to her normal self, got showered, dressed and left the house with Bart.


	10. Chapter 10

Mattie looked at the large monitor on the back of the camera rig. It was interesting seeing her life acted out by Lucy, zoomed and cropped to fit the widescreen format. She wanted to talk, to say something but couldn't. She had to keep quiet and not cause the director to shout "CUT!" again. She had to be a ghost, not accidentally appear in reflections, be heard in the background. The word caught her off guard. Ghost. She had to stay still and focus on other things to keep it together. Nobody outside the team and extended family would ever know she'd played a part. Sam and Jon had done an amazing job, taking elements of the family's past and boiling it down to eight lots of forty something minutes. They'd take the credit, along with the guys from Sweden. She'd not be on any credits rolling at the end of an episode.

"And cut! Good job guys!"

The scene with the penguin was done. One rehearsal, two takes.

"Since we've got everyone available today and we've only got the house for two weeks we're shooting the police arriving with Hobb. Ivanno, if you could get on the table please."

Ivanno had really got into character, gone off script and smiled at the policeman when he'd had a gun shoved in his face. Mattie hadn't seen it but she could picture Max having done exactly the same. The director liked it and didn't ask for another take. Thankfully there was one actor that looked really different to the person he was playing. Danny Webb. He was playing Hobb better than any real Hobb could. Katherine Parkinson was a good lookalike, thankfully a real fun lady and great actress that made everyone laugh when the cameras weren't rolling. Lucy had cheekily thrown in a "Have you tried turning it off and on again?" when Gemma did the long false laugh of Anita. It got a few sniggers from Tom Goodman-Hill until she'd jokingly asked if Mr Selfridge was needed to get things in order.

Tom had explained that filming with loads of extras was a challenge, the more people on set the more things could go wrong, the more there'd be chances of continuity errors. The weirdest thing was seeing Theo and Pixie. Mattie felt like she'd jumped back in time, done a Quantum Leap into herself.

During their break she'd accidentally called the young actress Teeny. Twice!

Lucy flaps her jumper trying to stay cool. They were shooting scenes that were supposed to be on the same day as ones shot yesterday only today it was much warmer. She explained that she really wanted to take it off but didn't want hair and makeup fussing over her and delaying things. Continuity issues had to be kept in mind, as Tom had said. "Are you really that hooked on NERO?"

"Um, yeah. Don't you like them?"

"They're okay I guess, in small doses."

"Have you been to one of their gigs?"

"No, plenty other bands though. Maybe if I met some of the band members my feelings would change."

Mattie was about to offer something and halted herself just in time. Not disturbing greatness. That was the pearl of wisdom from Mum. Power corrupts, even unintentionally. She was cash rich, had a mass of cars needing new owners. A place in France family and friends could visit. She could easily make Lucy Carless into Lucy Super Cargot. But she'd be changing the natural growth and development of a young actress that looked badass enough to be going places under her own steam. Interfering wouldn't be fare. If any of them did well it would be because of the hard work and skill they brought to the project.

"It really sucks that you were in that crash."

Mattie's mind snapped back to the room.

"Thanks Pixie."

"What's it like being a synth?"

"It's okay actually. I'm glad I got to have the kids first though."

"Sorry to hear about Angel One and her partner."

Mattie bursts into tears, has to excuse herself and runs out of the house, shaking uncontrollably.

Lucy looks at Theo, "Well done, maybe we should be calling you Knob Cock?"

"How was I to know she'd react like that? 

I was only being sympathetic."

Pixie giggles, "Synth-pathetic."

Lucy gives Pixie a wink, "Nice one Teeny! Back in a sec."

Lucy finds Mattie leaned against the outside wall emptying her tear tank. She pulls an almost empty pocket pack of tissues out and hands them over, "He's sorry, didn't mean any harm."

"I know."

"I love the role, you were quite a rebel when you were younger."

"Thanks. I was lucky. The universe threw me the right curve balls to help shape my life. You're a frigging awesome actress. I better go. Being here I'm in the way."

"Will I see you again?"

"Probably best not. I'll watch you grow through your work." The two hug for a moment. "You're quite a badass too, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. And if you start to worry like I did keep one thing in mind."

"What's that?"

"A standard synth can't act for toffee."

Lucy chuckles, "Sure, thanks."

"Don't let anyone knock you back."

"I won't."

"Promise."

"I promise."

"Bart! Time to go!"


	11. Chapter 11

Bart has her most of the way home when he answers a call from Emily.

"Hi, are you anywhere near IKEA by any chance?"

"No."

"Yes!"

"We're.."

Mattie slaps his dash, "What did you need Ems?"

"Only if you're not far?"

"It's no trouble honestly."

"Some new knives, forks, spoons, plates and glasses for Sentenel House? We need more and I'd like them all to match."

"How many?"

"One hundred sets."

"Sure Ems, leave it with me."

"Thanks babes."

The call ends.

"Bart call Leo please."

He watches her wipe her eyes, "Is everything okay Mattie?"

"I just want to be out of the house for a while."

"Okay."

"Hi Mattie, where are you?"

"Heading to the house."

"I'm with George helping him fit new high-flow ink heads onto Squiddie."

Bart brings up a map showing the extra route,

"Great, I'm only a few miles away, I'll see you in a bit."

Call over she taps his dash, "What's on your playlist that's upbeat?"

"Lots! Which playlist though? I've got a few now. Dance Anthems, Car Related, Music Humans Make Love To.."

"Whoa, the first one sounds fine. Nice and loud please."

"Okay."

The remix of Calvin Harris's I'm Not Alone was hardly upbeat and has her in tears.

"Would you like me to change the track?"

"No! I need to empty my tank, stay off food and liquids for a bit."

"Would you like me to power up the seat charge coil?"

"Please."

A few minutes later they find Leo leaning against the shop doorway.

Mattie lowers the passenger window. "All done?"

"Yeah, Sandra's already inking the first customer with it, George left a few minutes ago."

"Jump in then."

~~~

The store was busy, loads of young couples buying things for their new homes.

Leo holds her hand, "Late lunch or charge in Bart?"

"Lunch please. I was going to fully empty my tanks, but now I'm with you I've changed my mind."

They get upstairs and grab a tray, get bottles of water.

They're close to the cooked food when Mattie looks back along the queue, "Couldn't grab a couple of rolls could you Bunny?"

"Sure, anything else?"

"Butter please."

She watches him stride back along the line, shoulders up, an air of confidence, but not arrogance. Put him next to his old self and you'd see such a huge difference.

"'Tone this one looks well fit." she feels a hand touch her belly, "Yeah, well fit."

"Get off me!"

The man waves a phone at her, "What model are you love? The app ain't saying."

"Let go of my arm!"

"What model are you?"

Leo grabs one of the men by the back of his jacket and pulls hard, lifting him off his feet and flying backwards.

"Help Tone!"

Tony waves his phone at Mattie, is pushing Leo away with his other hand, "Fucking app is shit! It's saying she's synth .. not which model." Mattie turns off all radio and lowers her sensor bit rate right down. "Eh? Now it's saying she's not. F'ing thing." he shakes it, "Crap app or me phone's on the blink."

Wanting things to calm down Leo stands still and talks calmly, "Get, away, from my wife."

The man stops waving the phone and braves a turn to see Leo, "Your wife? Like married?"

"Yes."

"Sorry mate, this bloody thing says, said, she was a synth."

"And if she was?"

"The hand you're standing on belongs to Chris. He wants one."

"So you just go attacking random synth women you like the look of? You frigging.."

"Angel! Chris, get up. What do you mean app?"

"iSynth iPhone app. The Real Life Synth Showroom App."

"Frigging synth detector? We Are People all over again!"

"No, no, we're not WAP. It's by Persona, they said we see a fit synth we like, click the button and it captures the data for a copy and places the order."

"Why would they make that?"

"There's more models than they can keep in their showrooms."

"I see. Angel we'll talk about this later."

"Nice abs, sorry about the touching, really thought you were a synth. Should I know you?"

"I'm Doctor Matilda Elster-Hawkins. Nobel prize winner, AI and Robotics Specialist, daughter in law to the inventor of synths." Mattie wipes away a tear.

Tony spots store security approaching. "Fuck. I _knew_ I knew the face, couldn't place it. Really _really_ sorry! Meant no harm."

"In future look don't touch!"

"Sorry doctor."

She turns to Chris, "So you think I'm fit?"

He glances at Leo, looks majorly embarrassed, and turns to Mattie, "Yeah, sorry."

Leo explains to the security man that there had been a misunderstanding, everything was good.

Mattie holds out a hand for the phone, "Let me give you contact details for a high end synth designer called Harun, he'll do you a custom DCL model that nobody else will have."

~~~

Mattie's mood was down, "Persona are beginning to piss me right off. Frigging app. Do you know what they've said to Dad?"

"Yeah, we had a meeting down the pub a few nights back. He's not happy with the way they're behaving."

There's a screaming behind them, loud and shrill.

Leo is first to turn, "Oh my.." 'Behind us. I think a 3 maybe 4 year old, like the girl on the card from Paperchase. She looks like a young Niska.'

She was having a major hissy fit over something.

'I don't know about you bit I've just muted audio in.'

'Ha, me too!'

They watch her being wheeled slowly around the floor.

'What a frigging brat. So glad Leona and Matthew were not like that.'

'Maybe they were, Mia and Max hid it from us?'

'No way, it would still show in their nature now.'

'Shall we find the stuff for Emily then?'

'Sure, we'll need one of those flatbed trolleys, it's all.. Wow! Bunny, can you see the girl to my two o'clock? Maybe ten years old?'

'In very adult looking top and jeans? And by that I mean designer, expensive looking with a flawless perfect fit.'

'Yeah. They look like they were made for her. The jumper's like a second skin.'

'Mini Gem's Gems?'

Mattie smiles, 'Exactly!'

'Ask them then.'

"Hi.. sorry to bother you, do you know about London Fashion Week?"

Nods.

"A good friend of ours owns Gem's Gems and was looking to do a children's range. Would you both be free to attend? We'll pay for your time."


	12. Chapter 12

Back at work after the brilliant weekend Joe was daydreaming of France, eyes on the photo frame watching it loop through the photos of Laura. His gorgeous wife. He had joined the party and was on Mia's new diet too. Things were happening. Good things. His skin was getting a little less saggy for starters, was softer to the touch. And his beard was losing the grey.

He opens the draw and gets out the photocopy to do his morning read. It was his equivalent of the alcoholic's serenity prayer, something to focus his mind. Only totally different content.

He'd found it late one evening in a magazine the office cleaners had left on the worktop. Waiting for the kettle to boil he'd had a flick through, found an article on Brad Pitt.

It worked best when he read it out loud to himself. "My wife got sick. She was constantly nervous because of problems at work, personal life, her failures and problems with children. She has lost 30 pounds and weighed about 90 pounds in her 35 years. She got very skinny, and was constantly crying. She was not a happy woman. She had suffered from continuing headaches, heart pain and jammed nerves in her back and ribs. She did not sleep well, falling asleep only in the morning and got tired very quickly during the day.

Our relationship was on the verge of break up. Her beauty was leaving her somewhere, she had bags under her eyes, she was poking her head, and stopped taking care of herself. She refused to shoot the films and rejected any role. I lost hope and thought that we'll get divorced soon

But then I decided to act on it. After all I've got the most beautiful woman on the earth. She is the idol of more than half of men and women on earth, and I was the one allowed to fall asleep next to her and to hug her shoulders.

I began to pamper her with flowers, kisses and compliments. I surprised her and pleased her every minute. I gave her lots of gifts and lived just for her. I spoke in public only about her. I incorporated all themes in her direction.

I praised her in front of her own and our mutual friends. You won't believe it, but she blossomed. She became even better than before. She gained weight, was no longer nervous and she loved me even more than ever. I had no clue that she CAN love that much.

And then I realized one thing: The woman is the reflection of her man. If you love her to the point of madness, she will become it."

He stared at the words, he hadn't supported Laura as much as he could have when things went wrong, despite thinking at the time he had. Now he did every opportunity possible and things had turned around.

He doesn't hear the door open. "Joe!"

He's startled and almost leaps out of his chair. "Jesus Tony! Haven't you heard of knocking!"

"Sorry, Persona are here, saying there's a major conflict of interest."

"Conflict?"

"Your kids part own DCL."

"Ah. That. I wondered if that would come home to roost. I hoped it would go away after the phone call. Show them in."


	13. Chapter 13

Sat at one of the two very large long benches Joe had made Mattie watched the family having a late lunch. People watching. As Peggy had taught her.

Everyone was cool. Megan wasn't here, but everyone else was. The workshop at Sentinel House had been shrunk back down now that all synth manufacturing had been relocated to the factory. The smaller workshop was used by Danny when he couldn't be arsed to jump in the car. Or when they wanted to show kids coming for lectures how things like 3D printers worked.

The shipping containers had long gone, all the old synths fixed, upgraded and set free. The space had be turned into a beautiful garden. Mia, Laura, Sophie, Emily and Holly-Anne had done the planting, Leo, Toby, Danny and Jason the landscaping. They all wanted a Petits Anges grade garden back in England and the ground was screaming out for a makeover.

It went down well with the school teachers too, they had somewhere nice to relax when the kids broke for lunch. The icing on the cake was a pair of magpies that returned on a regular basis to gather nesting materials. Fred had done some research, scattered a number of inexpensive jewels, twigs and scraps of material about the grounds for them to find.

Her lectures we getting more popular, there was now a long waiting list. The tone of the lecture was different. It still had all the basics to jumpstart an interest in technology, AI or robotics, but also talked about using technology to help nature; Video footage of the James and their home made hovercraft cleaning the oceans, plastic bottles and other rubbish being turned into housing, the stretch of wild flowers at the back of the garden and the bee hive. Fred would come in if not performing surgery and help kids get over any phobias. Bees were not wasps. Keep still, don't panic and a bee will soon work out you're not a flower, fly off to find one. They may land on you for a second or two, but give them a moment and they'll be off. Bees were to be helped not flapped at.

Bee keeper and baker Mia was of course grateful for the pure honey. She carried a tiny vial of sugar water to help any exhausted bees she found. She wore it on a necklace and would often play with it just like a fab would. As she was doing right now.

Mattie watches Max tapping away on his phone briefly before resuming a conversation with Toby and Holly-Anne. Writing another idea down for his latest novel no doubt. The last one had been an RPF. Real Person Fiction. She hadn't heard of the acronym before and had done a web search, the top result was Rebel Penguin Federation, something kids games related. With the penguin scene filmed at the house the alternate name had stuck, anything Max wrote was now secretly about penguins.

She smiles to herself and watches her family. This was what weekends were made for. Leona had her girlfriend Kristie by her side, looked the happiest she'd ever been. She wasn't the only one looking happier, her parents looked totally different too.

Mia's latest cake, Devour Me, had her magical combination of elements. Mia had given strict instructions that no crumbs were to be left anywhere but at home. The wrappers were to be brought home for burning, she didn't want anyone outside of their group having the chance to work out the ingredients.

At her mothers 60th birthday party, a low key extended family and colleagues only affair, her boss Fiona had looked at her star lawyer and said 'Sixty is the new Forty. How on earth do you do it Laura?' To everyone surprise Laura's PA Perma Pink, a nickname she'd gotten for her consistent choice of dress colour, had rushed over and said 'Sign the NDA first.' turned and smiled at Mia. That had got four ladies on the diet; Gemma, Whittier, Laura and Fiona. Fiona had asked Mia when she was going to market it, the answer had been another surprise. Never. Mia said the world's population was already too great, extending the lifetime of the general population wouldn't be kind to the future generations. Joe had agreed, started a conversation around the UK Government pension system not being able to cope for several decades already.

"How's the vest coming on Toby?"

"Fine chops, not quite NERO ready, some of the coils need their power levels backing off a bit."

"So when can I try it?"

"Um. Never?"

"Why?"

"Massive _electromagnetic_ vest?"

"Oh. Of course. That's a shame."

Danny looks at the hose snaking across the grass. "There might be a way to make it synth friendly using air hoses. But it would be easier to just hook into your system and fake the sensor data."

"Okay, better than nothing, hay Danny, Bart gave me a great idea for a car accessory."

"Oh yes?"

"How many times do we go to the shops and forget all those 10p bags in the boot?"

"Loads."

"He reminded me to take one yesterday. How about a super simple thing you plug in the cigarette lighter socket? When the power is cut it plays a _Don't forget a bag_ message."

Joe wipes his mouth, "Not all cars power it off as people use them for USB chargers."

"True, but if the alternator has stopped wouldn't there be a change in voltage or current?"

"Yeah Matts, one to play with for old petrol cars."

Laura looks at her daughter, "So what happened in IKEA? It sounds like an invasion of privacy. If Leo watched it all the two of you could make a video that would cause quite a stir."

"That app needs shutting down or a start up warning screen on what's acceptable behaviour."

"Do you know Persona want to take their account elsewhere, not have your father managing it?"

"Eh? I knew they had issues. But take it away? Why?"

"Conflict of interests. They're saying I can take things from them and give it to DCL."

"Bollocks! They've ripped off some of our DCL physical mods. Name one thing we've taken from them!"

"I know Danny, it's messed up. They're saying DCL have to share their food processor patent or they'll pull the account."

"That's blackmail!"

"I know. Which is why I've called their bluff and told them to go."

Mattie almost breathes her wine instead of swallow it. "You said that accounts larger than the rest put together!"

"It is."

"Frigging hell Dad!"

"They also say they want their top designer back."

"Harun?"

Harun looks around having heard his name, "Yes?"

"Would you go back to Persona?"

"No way, what a backwards step that would be."

"Mum, sounds like you need to get involved."

"A further conflict of interest?"

Emily steps to another family member with her pad and pencil, happy that Mattie's attention was elsewhere.


	14. Chapter 14

Pete watches Mattie pour another drink. "Do you ever miss a beer buzz? Not getting drunk, just that comfortably numb feeling?"

"Yeah, I do, a little."

David had an arm around Samantha, takes it away and leans forward resting elbows on knees, looking at his daughter in law.

George leans back and wraps an arm around Isobel, "Look out, the old man's up to his old tricks."

"I've not had a coding project for ages. And who are you to call me old you cheeky sod? Just because you've been moved into a new body doesn't mean you reset the clock."

"I know, just teasing you David."

"I know. Any sensors in that food processor of yours?"

"Yes, but they're local only."

"So nothing that could feed data on chemical composition into an IO line?"

"No."

"That's a shame. We'd have to tie into an existing data line. As it's all two-wire bus it should be doable."

George nods, "Given it's location and proximity to other areas I think Fred could do an operation to insert a new wire. It would have to be far thicker of course. There's an ideal spot to connect it."

"You're thinking of the area I'm thinking about?"

"Probably. Fred would have to remove quite a few sensors to get a good connection."

"I don't know, it's a bit risky, there are a lot of wires that converge into that one location, the sensor placement is very dense there. If Fred were to have a problem.."

"We'd never here the end of it. She'd be demanding a new body again."

"She? The cat's mother? I am here if you're talking about me. And what's the location you're talking about?"

David does the best deadpan look he can, "You wouldn't mind if we took a few sensors from your G spot?"

"You can go take a running jump! Nobody's touching my sensors down there just for a beer buzz!"

Emily had sat motionless listening, resumes sketching with Fred.

Karen shakes her head, "You men are awful. They're teasing you I'm sure Mattie."

David keeps the look up, "I wasn't. But I'm sure given time we can find a way to reliably graft new wires onto the ends of existing ones."

"Forget it, just design it into the new body. Something to look forward to."

George has his thinking face on, "All teasing aside, I think we could do it all in software." Under the table Leo gives her knee a squeeze. "Add a HAL. Hardware Abstraction Layer. It could modify sensor data based on what the smell and taste sensors had recently reported."

Pete takes off his glasses and rubs his eyes, "Can you imagine the calls into the unit? Hello, my synth won't come down from the shed roof, he's tripping out, thinks he's spider man."

After the laughter subsides George turns to see Mattie, "I wasn't thinking of messing with the sensor data to that extent, but it's all software, anything's possible."

"No thanks George, a simple beer buzz will suffice. We don't want to get synths hooked on drugs."

"You're hooked on Champagne."

"Okay, hard drugs."

"Alcohol abuse is still.."

"Okay, message received and understood. I only do two bottles a week with Leo. That's only four glasses each if we're using the Nutella tumblers. A week. Not day."

Pete puts his glasses back on, "Being a fab still I need my beauty sleep, time to call it a night. Thanks everyone, it's been another good one. George I'll see you in the morning."

"Okay Pete, sleep well."

"I will."

"Don't forget it's at the factory not our house."

"I won't. I'll bring my keys too."

Mattie watches Pete and Karen leave, hand in hand. "What's happening at the factory?"

"Pete's helping test our new self service unit."

"Self service for what?"

"Backups."

"Is that wise?"

"I've added a lot of failsafes. It will only work if ten or more James are about. It will only save a backup to the archive if a lot of criteria are met."

"Such as?"

"Iris scan, body weight, height, face recognition, DNA check, passcode, a percentage of previously seen long term memories still present, no Hobb memories found. And a unique 1024 byte key held on a USB key."

"And a partridge in a pair tree.."

"Nice rhyming. I could add that."

"I was being facetious."

"I wasn't. A passphrase would be a good addition."

They sit in silence for a moment.

Laura looks thoughtful, "Has anyone not got a current backup? In the extended family."

"A few."

"Who?"

"Shouldn't that remain private to the individual?"

"Yes, yes I suppose it should. Toby tells me he has."

"He has."

"Sophie, have you?"

There's silence.

"Potato darling, have you?"

Sophie looks nervously at Mattie.

"She hates the headaches. Teeny, see me tomorrow, we'll do something to ease the pain."

She smiles, "Thanks Mattie."

"Drag Jason along too."


	15. Chapter 15

Mattie calls Leo upstairs, is waiting in a red silk nightgown.

"Hi Angel, everything go okay with Sophie and Jason? I see you've got Dad's equipment downstairs."

"Yeah, she's good now. I gave her a strong pain killer an hour before we did it."

"What's up? Why aren't you dressed?"

"With the girls all off to LFW soon I was talking to George about that carbon fibre body shaper, the ways in which it flexed or didn't."

"Okay?"

"Well he took my thoughts and made one for Isobel to try an idea out. He liked the results so much he made me one to say thanks."

"It's different how?"

Mattie very slowly and carefully undoes the gown, symmetrically pulls it off her shoulders and lets it slip down her arms to her elbows.

"You look ravishing. It doesn't look any different."

Mattie does a tiny shimmy shake. Then another. Then another.

"That's quite hypnotic!"

"Ha! Breasts prove men _can_ focus on two things at once."

"Your version of Jimmy's saying."

"It was ours first!" she watches his face as he sees her breasts gently swaying left and right, still fully supported and chuckles, "I think I'll call it the HypnoBra."

"Who's photographer for London Fashion Week? Do you need another and will you be wearing that under something?"

"Come light me up and I might let you join in."

Leo fakes a flat drowsy voice, "I'm under your spell, your wish is my command!"

~~~

Mattie is on her back, chest rising and falling as she breathes heavily, "Wow. Bunny. How do you.." she's stopped by a finger placed gently on her lips, "You know you can turn off that breathing response, it's totally voluntary."

"It's me, so staying."

"Ready for the next phase?"

"Next phase?"

"That was just the warm up."

"I don't think you can imp.." her back arches and she grabs bedding with both hands, "OH MY FRIGGING GOD!"

"Is God female and does she?"

"No idea! Whatever you're doing down there keep do.. OH MYYYY MMMMMMM. Have you developed super powers or what! Talking of those, remember that shared dream we had years ago?"

'Yes?'

"One of us must have had mutated DNA that helped us do that, help give the twins their abilities."

'I guess so.'

"Shame we can't do DNA testing."

'Yeah, none in these bodies.'

"That thing you just did.."

'What this..'

"OH MYYYY.." Her fingers with ever perfect nails rip through the cotton bedding. "That.. that was it. How long are you going to be doing that down there?"

'Until you cum.'

"You'll be waiting a while, my tanks are slowly refilling."

'I'm in no hurry but we'll have to stop at some point to slap a charge coil on.'

"Until then you can keep g.. OOOOHHH MMMYYY GOOOOD!" she arches so much her weight is on her buttocks and the back of her head. "BUNNY!"

There's the sound of screaming. Not hers but powerful little lungs at the other end of the hall.

"Frig! You better come up for air and give me a cuddle, I've woken the kids up."

"Frack, Toby and Hols will be mad."

"I was so lost in the moment I totally forgot they were home. How embarrassing!"

"If anyone knocks just give them your old go away response. Turn off all your audio, I'm not finished yet."

Mattie's eyes roll to the top of her head as Leo takes her to previously unknown levels of ecstasy.

~~~

As she lays on the bed recovering she whispers, "No way is anyone ever tampering with sensors down there. I think you've earned the right to be my photographer."

"Yours?"

"We'll have six models, Mia, Niska, Samantha, Sandra, Iain's Sally and myself. Two models for each photographer to worry about."

He reaches out and tickles her getting wriggles and giggles, "Come light me up and I _might_ let you join in. Those were your words you cheeky minx!"

"Um yeah."

" _Might_ let you?"

"Well Jazz said she _might_ be able to help if you couldn't, Paul is a definite as is Maxxie."

"So you planned for me to be in the team from the start?"

"There's a pass on the dresser with your name on it."

"You devious .."

She rolls and grabs him by his manhood, "Ooh someone's definitely standing to attention!" she changes to a Bond villain voice, "Choose your words wisely Mr Bun.. I can bring you a world of pleasure.. or a world full of pain."

It gets a chuckle, "Blackmail? Seriously?"

"The truth Mr Bun, tell me the truth." she drops out of character for a second, "Where's one of the frigging cats when you need to stroke one menacingly? Mum always said I'd make a good Bond villain." she resumes her act, "Keep in mind I am an expert reader of faces Mr Bun. Your word was?"

Leo considers his fate for a moment, "Cow. My word was cow."

"A brave response Mr Bun, milking time!"


	16. Chapter 16

The following three days has Mia giving Mattie odd looks. Niska does the same when she visits with Odi.

"What _is_ the problem?"

"There's no problem Mattie."

"Then why that look?"

"What look?"

"The look you gave me when I stood up."

"I didn't give you a look?"

"You so frigging did! Nis has been doing it too."

"I've not done anything."

"Yes you have." Mia glances at Leo. Ah. The little angelic cherub face. His OMG moment had been louder than hers. "Leo, fancy taking Toby for a pint? He looks like he could do with some man talk and not baby talk."

"Where is he?"

"In the garden with Holly-Anne."

"Sure, I'll leave you to it. Whatever it is, you coming Odi?"

The three watch them go.

"Okay. Blab. Spill the beans."

Mia's expression warms, "It is not I who has beans to spill Matilda."

~~~

Toby clinks glasses with Odi then Leo, "Cheers mate, so needed a nice cold pint."

"You're welcome."

"How's fatherhood treating you?"

"I'm knackered Odi. You know if I didn't work flexible hours with DCL and do the odd DJ gig I don't know how I'd cope. Especially as they're crawling around. I could do with eyes in the back of my head, I turned my back for a few seconds and Tumbler was half way up the stairs."

"I thought you kept the stair gates closed like your life depended on it?"

"I do, I'm checking it to paranoid levels. I swear it was closed!" he takes a long sip of his cider, "I was thinking about making an alarm for it so we can hear when it opens."

Leo puts his pint down for a moment, "We've got the skills between us all, why not?"

"Hols gets up some nights to get a drink from the kitchen, I'd not want it waking everyone up."

Leo relives memories of the way his pint made him feel, maybe the beer buzz idea wasn't such a bad one. He looks away from the nice cold glass to his brother in law, "So it needs to be silent if it's you or Holly-Anne at the gate, make a noise if it's anyone else?"

"Silent if it's family, unless it's left open for more than a few seconds."

"How about David's trick on the ship? Attenuate a receiver and listen for signals?"

"That could work, assuming Hols and I have our phones."

"A Pebble watch or anything that's sending Bluetooth LE would do. They do little devices you can wear like a medical patch."

"Maybe. I'll have a chat with Dan."

"Have a chat about what Obi Wang?"

Toby turns to see Danny and Tim. "Guys! Pull up a chair. What are you doing here?"

Tim grabs a chair from an empty table, "Mia called, said I should take a break, I'd find you here."

"You drove all this way?"

"No, DC1 drove, Danny was over at Angel House talking about our plans for Petit Anges."

"What plans are they?"

"With some cars gone it's an ideal place to hide a data centre away. We'll put a mezzanine floor in so cars can pass underneath."

"What about fumes?"

"Already talked about that, extra large fans under the mezz floor that will push it into the ducting."

"Nice."

Leo pulls out his wallet, "Tonight is on me, what are you drinking?"

"The usual thanks."

"Same."

Odi puts a hand up, "I'll skip this one thanks, I'm full of Mia's coffee." he smiles, "I had so much sugar in it I think my lager is doing a second fermentation." He burps. "Change that think to know!"

Beverly picks up some empty glasses, "I was told about Georges smoke rings, now burping, whatever next.. Where is George tonight?"

Odi doesn't turn to see just replies, "With David doing a coding marathon, both have their DND set."

"Dnd?"

"Do Not Disturb."

"I see."

"The usual for Tim, Danny and myself please Beverly."

"Okay Leo."

The barmaid was one of the synths that they'd fixed from the shipping container. She had a slight limp, the new leg was better than her old one, they'd offered to do some tuning but she said she liked it as it was. She'd stayed local, liked to chat on less busy days. The regulars loved her American accent and she'd had quite a few asking her out, she'd smile and decline their offers every time. "Shall I bring them over?"

"I'll get them."

"Thanks love." she called everyone love, so Leo took no notice of his admirer, unaware of the love she felt for him.

Leo shuttles back and forth between bar and table.

"One for you Tim.."

"Thanks."

"And one for you.."

"Cheers lads, so what's the reason for the meet?"

Toby licks his lips, "They probably want to practice their walks and turns for the runway, their swagger."

Tim stretches, "And Mia her sass. She thinks she's too soft looking."

Leo is staring into space, "Swagger and Sass! You guys rock!"

"Eh?"

"Swagger and Sass. Cindy wanted a theme to link the elements together."

"Not following you?"

"The PV roof sales team!"

"Still not following you?"

"Jimmy and Quench in camouflage gear guarding the stage, some outfits in camouflage at the opening, the more out there outfits then usual Gem's Gems."

"You think they'd go for it?"

"No idea. Let's see if they want to join us."

"Anyone fancy making a full night of it? If so I'll invite all the lads over."

Tim checks his watch, "Um before you do, I've been ordered to ask a question of you Leo."

"Oh yes?"

"Yeah, what's your secret?"

"What secret?"

"The one that had Mattie ripping the bedding."

Leo laughs, "Ah, that. What is this, gathering data for the makings of Bad Dads?"

Toby grins at Danny, "Why not, they've had two Bad Mums films, why shouldn't we have one? We could reconstruct Danny's old room, wallpaper invisible thanks to all the posters."

Danny groans, "No thanks mate, old me's long gone. It was like we're on a see-saw, the more I put that behind me the worse Emily got. She'd want to be involved in some way, she's got an insatiable appetite. Her pussy is worse than that alien flower in little shop of horrors, I swear if it could it would shout Feed Me! All fucking day long!"

"That bad?"

"She's worse now she's a synth, she wears me out. Well battery down."

"Fucking all fucking day long. It's not an oxymoron, but there must be a word for a sentence like that."

"Probably."

Tim smiles, "I'm not complaining about my love life, things are on the mend."

"Mend? What did you do? Snap it in half?"

Tim goes a bright red, "'Course not! Can you imagine having to have your dick in a splint?"

"Or a cast?"

There's a lot of chuckles.

"That wouldn't work, you'd have to be on Viagra 24 7 just to stop the thing falling off." He takes a few big gulps and wipes his mouth on the back of his hand, "Seriously though, what's the secret Leo, the ladies want us to know."

Leo pulls his wallet out and puts notes on the table, "Help me get another round in and I might get talking and reveal the magic formula."

"Formula?"

"Is part of the answer. And found purely by accident. In a very large bottle."

"Champagne?"

"Good guess Toby but no. Get the drinks in."


	17. Chapter 17

Toby's jaw drops, "You spent how much!"

"You heard."

"One a _single_ bottle of perfume? Fucking hell!"

"It's a HUGE bottle and it's heaven not hell."

"I bought Holly-Anne a huge bottle of Lady Million and it didn't cost anywhere near that much."

Joe accepts another pint being pushed his way, "Not seen it Tobs? Laur asked me to check all the rooms for signs of damp after that shocking program on the telly, the bottle is insanely huge."

"Define insane." Joe holds hands out to show the size. "That's nuts!"

"You should have seen Mattie and I trying to get it into the hotel room."

"Heavy?"

"We had to wheel it around on a little cart."

~~~

Just after 11PM the landlord declares it a private party and starts to bolt the front doors. As he's doing the last one Megan bursts in, runs up to Max and grabs his head. Open mouthed kiss over she wipes her mouth and runs out of the pub. Not a word had been said.

"Maxxie? What have you done?"

"I have no idea."

"You must have done something?"

"No idea Leo, I don't have the faintest idea."

Tim grins and starts hand clapping the table, "Maxxie, Maxxie, Maxxie." others join in.

"Honestly, I have _no_ idea why she did that."

"Do you still show an interest in her?"

"Of course, I love her."

Danny raises his pint to Max, "To Max being Max and a woman on the opposite end of the scale to Ems, long may that love stay true."

"You're saying she kissed me for me just being me?"

"Maybe that's all she needed."

Danny turns to Toby and whispers, "I never expected to say this but I envy Max a little."

Toby raises his glass, "Here's to the Elster Brothers, you Max, earning Brownie points for just being yourself, Fred, several thousand coming your way for that awesome statue. And Leo, Leo Leo Leo. Several million for making my sister smell like she's got that rose garden of Petits Anges in her pocket. And sharing the secret of course."

Fred grins, "I've been searching memes for suitable things for your Bad Dads idea. Are we going to film it ourselves to give the girls a laugh, play it at film night?"

Toby puts a hand up for a high five, "Awesome idea! What was the meme?"

"Rearrange these letters to form words. 1. PNEIS. 2. BUTTSXE. Did you get _Spine_ and _Subtext_? Yeah... Neither did I."

Joe is in shock, gawping silently.

Danny claps the table with his free hand, finishing a few gulps of his drink, "So didn't expect that from you Fred! We're going to have to find a way to exclude Ems. She'd be like the crazier one in Bad Mums one only so many times worse."

Toby frowns at his friend, "The two of you okay?"

"Okay enough Obi, when she's not got sex taking up most of her processing time."

Joe pulls a glum smile, "Too much and you want less? Most would love to be in your position."

Toby grins, "Talking from experience are you Dad? And which page number?"

"Page? Oh that book, positions. Christ there are some stupid positions in there unless you're a contortionist."

Tim smiles, "Yeah, they're awful unless you're Mia."

Silence fell as they all looked at him.

Leo looks the most shocked, "Mia?"

"Not your Mia. Mia Malkova. Shit. This goes nowhere right? Blasted alcohol."

"And who's she?"

"Do a search. I've been using her videos for stamina training." There's no noise from Toby but his body is clearly laughing hard. "What?"

"Seriously mate?"

"It was her idea. Find one with the first same name so I wouldn't make Max's mistake. Sorry Max."

"No problem. It's working is it?"

"Yeah. I've gone from minutes to over an hour."

Toby splutters into his pint, "Jesus! Over an hour?"

"Mind over matter."

"Where d'you find the time to practice?"

"At the end of the day before Mia comes out on the bike to pick me up."

"I said where not when but that answers it. Not in the machine room?"

"God no! In the toilets."

Harun shakes his head in the way that confused many, "Can you imagine, Here's the server you ordered, 16Gig RAM, 3TB hard drive, 10Gig network connection and Tim's thrown in 1M of his little swimmers."

There's a load of "Ewww."

Beverley bends over to pick up a load of the empties. "Are all of you spoken for?" she sees a sea of nods, "Typical, finally in the mood to say yes to someone and nobody's available. Maybe tomorrow will bring me mister or misses right."

Pete looks at Harun, "This filming idea, I can see it going one of two ways. Like a laugh a minute group therapy session. Or lead balloon that bombs. How are things with Matia?"

"Good thanks. You and Karen?"

"Like wise."

"If you need any tuning mods let me know."

"Legal?"

"For a sentient synth? Sure."

"What sort of mods?"

"All software."

"No ta, I like Karen just the way she is."

Harun reads his expression, "But.."

"Something's up. Nothing bad I think. Remember when Hobb got up close and personal with the bus? I told someone to wind their neck in and she called me a genius. She's been calling me that again for the last month."

"Why's that?"

"No idea yet, she says she'll share some news very soon."


	18. Chapter 18

Joe has Daniel, David, George, Leo, Mattie and Laura scattered around the conference table. "They're on the way up." He poured some water and took two more headache tablets, wished he'd not stayed out quite so late drinking with the others. 

"Shouldn't we all be sat on one side?"

"That would enforce us vs them. We don't want that Daniel."

"Okay, I'm not feeling very charitable today so they better not mess us about."

The CEO, Marketing Head, London Sales Director and Design Lead are shown into the room.

Danny goes to introduce their team. "Hopefully you'll know most of.."

"We know you all, thanks."

Danny looks at the CEO, doesn't like the tone of the man's voice. "Let's cut to the chase. You want to pull the account from Joe unless we hand over more tech. You've already taken DCL ideas we've patented, used them in your Persona Synthetics. We could have come at you with a massive law suit but decided not to, a bit of healthy competition helps keep us both on our toes and raising the bar, which is better for our customers."

The man leans forward and frowns at his design head, "What patents?"

"Um, the updated skin sensor."

"And how did we come by that?"

Danny stares down the CEO, "Harun, the 2015 chip. But I'm cool with it."

"Our sensor is newer than that?" the designer kicks himself for thinking out loud.

"And how did you get that?"

"Malcolm got a sample."

"From where?"

"Um, from a crash site."

Mattie counts down from ten, her fluid pump having spun right up. "Who's?"

"Yours."

'FRIGGING BASTARDS!' she puts her hands under the table to hide her clenched fists. "And how would you know the location?"

Silence.

"How would you have known the location?"

Silence.

Laura sits back in her chair, folds her arms, "It sounds to me, and I'm not an expert in the particular field, like Industrial Espionage has been going on. Quite a serious issue for any firm."

David nods, "The sort of thing that could knock a share price hard. Which would be a pity since my wife and her sisters now own eighteen percent of your stocks. It would be a shame to see them fall in value."

"Are you threatening to dump your shares?"

"Lord no! The ladies quite like the regular dividends, they're one of the top contributors to their shoe fund."

"Shoe fund?"

"They have a mild obsession about clothes and shoes. Retail therapy keeps them happy. That and being aggressive online traders. They're smart. Very smart. And if they're happy, I'm happy."

George looked perplexed, "Our current chips don't have any markings save one tiny dot to show orientation. Where did you get your supply?"

Silence.

The CEO glares at his design lead, "If you value your job you'll start talking. Right now!"

"We had a firm in China silicon shave the ones we got from the crash, copy the chip design."

Danny smiles, "In full? Like for like copy?"

"Yes."

He starts to laugh, a small chuckle turns into a full blown belly laugh. "Oh that's _priceless_!"

"Dan?"

"Mattie, can you access DCL from here? Got a projector Joe?"

"Yes."

"Yes."

Ten minutes later one of Joe's team is hooking the projector up to the laptop, "Anything else boss?"

"That's it Toba, thanks."

Mattie brings up the secure VPN connection to Sentinel House. "Now what?"

"Can you open up the common share, CAD design folder, chip sets, dolly-mixtures, latest folder under that tree?"

"Done."

"Load up the 3D model. Zoom out so it fills the screen."

"Okay?"

"Anyone see it?"

"See what?"

"Patience. Does anyone see it? No? Okay slowly rotate the model around the X axis so the top moves backwards and bottom forwards."

As the schematic rotates long traces shorten and three letters become more visible.

"Is this a joke?"

"No joke. It would appear that your latest synths each have many millions of our chips with DCL written in the silicon. Quite an advertising advantage if we were ever to use it. Which we won't, we're not vindictive. Assuming of course that we have a mutual understanding."

'Nice one Dan!'

'Thank Leo, it was Shark Boys idea!'

Leo smiles softly 'If you want to swim with the sharks make sure you've got your shit together.'

Joe picks up his pen, "Remind me, under which terms did you want to keep your account with my team?"


	19. Chapter 19

Back home Mattie finds Toby at the kitchen table with a plastic brick. "Hi Toby, what are you up to?"

He looks at her with suspicion, no KC, crusty or other nickname and she looked giddy with happiness. "Thinking about improvements to the brick shape. And you?"

She opens the cupboard and scans the cake collection. "Just had a meeting at Dad's office. Someone at Persona made a frigging huge mistake, they've built almost a million synths full of chips with DCL drawn in the silicon traces."

"Big oops!"

She grabs a plate and handful of random cakes, "So they've all come to a mutual understanding about how the account will be managed and who's going to share what tech wise."

"Cool, so Dad's safe then?"

"Totally."

"Nice."

"Want a cake?"

"I'm good thanks."

She sits down beside him, "What are your ideas for the brick then?"

"Seriously?"

"Why not?"

"You've not shown much interest before. Except in the finished buildings and clearing oceans and beaches."

"Some project management stuff got me thinking about the bits in the middle."

He picks up the brick and backs it on the table. "Lots of plastic, it's solid, no air."

"Is that bad?"

"It's strong. But it conducts heat too much. The families that tested the first houses all went and got fans."

"Right. Not good."

"No. Tommy said Andrea was in her underwear the other day it was so hot in their bungalow. They had to borrow one of the warehouse fans."

"So what's your idea?"

"Air pockets. A bit more like a LEGO. It will complicate manufacturing though."

"How so?"

"The machine pushes plastic into a grinder," he starts a quick rough sketch, "it sits above the heater which melts it. The force of the grinder pushing more plastic in pushes it along making it take shape. It's sliced off in brick lengths at this end."

"And you want it hollow in the middle?"

"In two places so they lock onto the square on the top. But we can't just make the tube U shaped as the ends would be open."

"Oh. I'll strike that suggestion off my list then."

They stare at the brick and drawing for a while.

Mattie pushes a cake off the plate by the end with one hand. Then repeats it with her other hand doing a chopping motion. "Does everything stop for the chop or does it move at the same speed?" her hand shows the pattern.

"It moves so things don't stop, it can jam up if we drop the pressure."

"What's it cut with?"

"A circular saw with a special air cooled blade. Is that relevant?"

"I don't know. Just curious."

They sit in silence for a while longer.

"Baby. Why am I thinking baby Tobs?"

"Did you hear them waking?"

"No."

"No idea then."

She sits and stares, "It's on the tip of my tongue as fabs would say. Frigging fact stores and deep linked knowledge. As soon as I have an answer I'll create a new link to this moment and next time _snap_ there it will be."

"Deep linked?"

"Pretend all you know about Z is that it's linked to Y. And all you know about Y is it's link to W. Do the same all the way back to B and A."

"Okay?"

"I ask you Starting at A what is Z? And you say.."

"The last letter of the alphabet?"

"No, because that's not in your fact store yet. Sure you could add that, but all you currently know at the moment is the letter to letter links."

"I'd have to check everything until I eventually found Z."

"That's deep linking."

"Shit. With all the stuff you know that's a lot of searching. Do you have to start at A? Why not pick a random place?"

"A random fact?"

"A random point in the chain."

"That assumes you know which chain to start looking in. What if I said Blue."

"Blue what?"

"Just Blue. That was the random fact you picked."

"Blue sky? Blue bird? Something Blue like at a wedding?"

"See, pick a random fact and you could be off into the hills on a wild goose chase following totally the wrong tree. It's best to start at.." she bends her hand and moves it as if holding something and pushing it back and forth. "Something you did years ago. Sophie was a new born, you were playing in the garden. Something had fallen off and I helped put it back on.. " the hand continues to move back and forth, "I'm missing something. Something got lost when George saved us. I can picture a shape, a wheel. On a toy I guess."

"Can you sketch it?"

"I'll try." she takes the pen and draws.

"On a toy? The only thing I can think of with a shape anywhere near close was the model tank Dad made."

Toby Tank! Start a search with the right words and BAM! there were the results!

"Frigging awesome! Tank tracks!"

"Tank tracks?"

"Inside out!"

"Eh?"

She runs to the living room, "Inside out. Let me find an image."

Toby watches her walking back, finger swiping fast on the Slate. "Inside out though?"

"The bits that stop the tracks coming off on a proper tank, look."

"Nice. But the plastic would ooze out of the gaps between the sections."

"What if the track was inside your tube?"

Toby draws a small loop inside the tube.

"Not quite, think bigger." she draws it so it enters from the hot end, leaves from the cold end and loops around underneath the tube. "Something like that? Then you just need something to knock it off the track section."

"Flipping hell Matts that's brilliant! If you were a Brownie I'd award you both the design and recycling badge."


	20. Chapter 20

Mattie goes to the fridge and grabs the juice, heads to the stairs. There was a shiny leaflet on the mat. Someone couldn't read the sign saying they didn't want any junk mail. She's just about to grab it and screw it into a ball when she notices the logo. Persona's. It was saying a new version of synths was on the way. Paper advertising? Really? In the age of digital media when every home in the UK had access to super fast broadband? That said it would stand out, everyone else had abandoned leaflet drops years ago. So that's why they wanted the technology from DCL, they were close to a roll out and wanted it now not later.

She takes a sip of the orange and opens it up for a read. There were nice large pictures, not a lot of text. She scanned the words, "Frigging hell that's a lot for a synth?"

Either someone in marketing had got their facts wrong again or these units were not as good as DCLs. Surely someone realised that 0.015% is actually A HELL OF A FRIGGING LOT FOR A SYNTH when you're talking about error rates?

She walks back to Toby, "Take a look at this, it has to be wrong surely?" it's placed on the table and a finger dropped by the text.

"9CX-CNS Decacore Processor. Our latest generation neural processor is up to 9 times more efficient than the first Synthetics, allowing your Synth to be even better at multitasking with a minimal error rate of 0.015%." he looks up at Mattie, "Deca means ten to the one. Ten. So where does the nine fit in?"

"It must be ten core, but clocked faster than the 7CX. That's not why I questioned it though. Minimal error rate of 0.015%? Call me a walking talking calculator but I make that a possible 150 errors in one million instructions."

"That's shit! Who on earth made these processors?"

"I guess they're custom Persona."

"They must have some sort of compatibility or conversion mode or David's code would never run surely?"

"I guess so."

"Can you imagine the fact store corruption you'd get with that error rate?"

"What a nightmare! It would be like getting a mental illness. Which I'd never wish on my worst enemy. Well except for Hobb maybe, only that could make him even worse. Strike that, not even Hobb. I woke up this morning and decided I was a hat stand."

Toby shakes his head, "Tried and tested and well proven technology gets my vote any day. I'd not want to be restored into one of those for sure."

"Me neither! I'm heading upstairs, see you later."

Toby smiled and nodded, returned to his sketching.


	21. Chapter 21

Mattie sat on the bed and did a search for the 9CX-CNS on her Slate. Not a single result that wasn't something high level from the Persona site. How about it's predecessor the 7CX? Still very little. Headcrackers. Why hadn't she looked there? She'd not visited it in over a year. They had a robots.txt and firewall config that kept as many search engines away as possible. She taps in 9CX-CNS and hits the search button. PersMole had uploaded a technical spec PDF. It's saved to the slate, opened and scanned.

"What a load of bollocks! You can't call it that when it's in code!"

In her university lectures Mattie had learnt all about neural net computers. They were supposed to be the next big thing. After the tank experiments many had labelled them a big mistake and abandoned them. The problem was you couldn't look inside and work out what was going on, only observe from the outside. The tank recognition had only worked out the difference between a sunny and overcast day. Sure all Synths learnt, but they booted into a sane state. The firmware Persona had emulated a neural net, as did the current code Mattie and others ran. But you couldn't call the CPU hardware a neural net processor, that was false marketing!

Another fact stored away for a rainy day.

She was feeling rather good. Leo was with Danny looking at something, both happy. Toby sounded very happy, Mum and Dad were happy. Hopefully Teeny was too. She'd had yet another compliment on her Gem's Gem when leaving the office with the gang.

What to do next?

She put down the Slate and put her hands on her knees, felt skin. She was in a knee length dress so that wasn't a problem. But she'd done it days ago and felt the same, the knees in her jeans so ruined. A sort through and clear out was in order.

Most of the dresses brought back good memories. She sorted them into various sets, put a few aside for charity shops.

Jeans. With torn knees. How many! It was embarrassing. Talk about hoarding. She throws the worst onto the bed with a view to bin them.

Toby calls out from downstairs, "Awesome Matts, I think it's really going to work. Thanks! I'm going to head over to the factory and make a small mockup."

"Welcome Tobs! See you later!"

He loved his recycling project. Recycle. She looked at the pile of jeans. Nah, they were for the landfill. Or..

Echoes from years gone by swim towards the surface and dive back down into the depths of her mind. Her long search for what turned out to be tank tracks had been like a dragged anchor disturbing the silty bottom of a deep river. Danny? Why was she thinking of Danny?

He'd had a real thing for her years ago. And if she was honest to herself she quite liked him then too. Why neither had braved the step closer and started something more meaningful she'd never know.

Danny. He'd pretend to be all gangster until she was around. What had Toby said? Something about his bedroom. That was it. Posters. Lots of posters. Rappers and bikini babes Toby had said, loosened up with some spin cycle cider, his kryptonite.

What had she got back then that made him interested? She never wore anything that looked remotely hip hop then. The belly tops only started thanks to Leo. She'd wash her hair but wasn't one of those girls that spent hours and hours brushing it over and over.

She and Leo got to see his room the day his first deal had come in. That half a million pound deal for a kid starting a business in his bedroom. The birth of DCL. The rest, as the saying went, was history.

Somehow torn jeans, Danny and his posters were linked. Probably thoughts of some hip hop chick in ripped jeans and bikini top.

She returns to the wardrobe and sorts out t-shirts. The EDM one was in a bag to ensure no moths got to munch on it. There was a DCL bug zapper in the light fitting, the bag was extra insurance. DCL. New York. The show. She gently runs a hand over the tshirt. That was a truly brilliant night. The stunt Leo pulled after they'd set up the... Holly Frigging Fracking Amazeballs!

In one of her Uni lectures the professor had talked about humans ability to take information in at a subconscious level. He'd said General Electric had introduced "One Second Theater", TV commercials with individual frames in the last second of the ad packed with information. It was intended for frame-by-frame viewing with digital video recorders. When viewed at normal speed the frames would flash by rapidly. A limited number of humans had been able to recall some of the content.

Holy Shit! She was one of the few! The 360 projector control system she'd set up behind the stage with Fay had done something similar. She'd flipped the power switch and watched the LCD console panel for a moment. Something had done a complex rotation on the screen, all over in the blink of an eye. She'd been so preoccupied with NERO she'd not taken it in. Not in a way she was aware of.

She closed her eyes and overclocked a little. Come on memories, you're in there somewhere. Be in there in full, not only the snapshot I've just recalled. Don't be another gap.

There was her finger, reaching out to turn it on. She skipped forward slightly. The display was coming on. A bit more. And there it was. The zoomed in image of Danny's room. Then it started turning through the 360, a weird progression of turns and shifts as it set up the many FPGA that translated the input into the shape shifted light output. It finished the sequence then displayed the room calibration menu. Had his room been something he'd displayed before shipping the unit from the UK? She backed up to the last part of the room sequence and froze it. She'd never seen this poster before. But she'd seen it. Subconsciously. The blipvert of a frame had registered at the back of her mind, been stored away for who knows when. Now obviously. It wasn't that great resolution wise but good enough.

A rather busty but well toned brunette with big earrings was standing in front of a yellow photographers backdrop paper. She was looking to left of camera, mouth open as if surprised by something. Surprised not shocked. Her arms were down by her sides, elbows in, holding the sides of some rather short denim bikini bottoms. Her large chest was in a bikini top, also denim. No prizes for guessing why Danny liked it. The outfit looked as if...

When family talked to strangers about what everyone did people were called creative, designer, seamstress, photographer, author, master baker, recycler, sculptor and the likes, most often multiple descriptions per person. Yet recently when they spoke about her? Coder. The one word said flatly. For frig's sake. She was so much more than that! So much more. So so much more. Sew. Mia's mending kit. Where was it?

~~~

Two pairs of identical jeans were selected, the ones with small belt loops. She carefully used the kitchen scissors to open the legs by the seam in the middle on one, unpicking the double stitches rather than cutting the material. She stripped down to her underwear and put the first pair on, threaded a thin belt through and did them up. About there, that's where she'd cut them. They'd be far shorter than the shorts some girls wore, pockets hanging from the front. Weird. They looked weird. She'd remove the pockets on these completely and sew up the openings.

She pulled the second pair over her head and added a belt, did the strap up as high as she could under her breasts. A few minutes of pulling the legs of this upside down pair up over her shoulders and she knew where she wanted to cut and join material. Awesome. The waistband would remain, the leg material at the back would go leaving two panels at the front. Just coder? She'd show them.

Sewing had taken some practice. Once she'd got the hang of the stitch it was easily repeatable now she was a synth. Machine stitched. But not. The waistband button was removed from three other pairs, carefully sewn into place. Button holes had to be cut slowly, too big and she'd ruin the top. The stitching around the button hole was easily replicated from the donor pairs.

Done. Her first recycling project. Now what?

Work it.


	22. Chapter 22

She glanced out the window, the weather was good. Good enough.

She reached behind and unfastened her bra, slipped it off and tried on the new top. Not quite perfect but like the weather good enough. The bottoms were too short for underwear, she'd have to go commando.

She had one more thing to do, some A4 paper, a sharp knife and Max's spray photo mount should do. That and a cocktail of dark makeup in an atomiser.

~~~

She grabbed one of the dogs leads and opens the front door, "Trixie! Walkies!"

"Bart, your doors open please!"

Trixie jumps up onto the drivers seat and leaps from it to the passenger seat, does a chase the tail spin twice and lies down.

"Mattie?"

"We're going into London to take Trixie for a walk."

"From the films I've watched and my limited direct interaction with humans I'd say that wasn't dog walking attire for the city of London."

"You'd be correct. Which is _exactly_ why it's appropriate for what I'm going to do. I'm DCL's Social Media and Marketing Exec. If I can't drum up some hype for Cindy I'll resign myself to just being known as a coder."

"You're way more than.."

"I know! I'll be at the wheel but can you drive please? I don't want to risk leaning into the seat and smudging the message."

"Did you fix it with a quick blast of hairspray?"

Mattie frowned at the dash. What on earth had he been watching now for Pete's sake? "That would help would it?"

"It would. I can play the section if you'd like? I have it on.."

"No! Thanks. I'll take your word, stay Trixie, mummy's going to be right back."

~~~

Walking the streets of Soho made her smirk, the place used to have a bad reputation for prostitution. Strike that. Terrible reputation. Then synths arrived. And here she was strutting her stuff in a home made black denim bikini, open black transparent blouse shirt, large sun hat and the killer heals that finished the look. One hand held the lead, the other her clutch. The shirt had been part of a two piece, she'd carefully cut the loops that held the straps to the inner silk top. The sign showed through enough to be read.

Trixie was being a star, walking in front, stepping in time, keeping the lead reasonably taught but not pulling hard. If anyone stood in their path Trixie would give a quick yap to get their attention.

They were on their second lap of a route Bart had helped work out, the streets covered in the most optimal way. A number of men and young women were taking snaps as she approached or passed. Just what she wanted. The 'See #GemsGems @LFW! Mattie xx' stencil sprayed onto her torso and back made her a strutting billboard. 

Just coder? As if! Badass Headcracker. Cosplayer. Humanitarian. Lecturer. Loyal wife. Mother. And that was just for starters.

The phone in her clutch buzzed. She was on a roll, no stopping for text messages, not just yet.

"Coffee for the lady now?"

"Thanks, I still don't have any cash."

"On the house. And water for your dog?"

That was the deal clincher. Trixie had done a lot of walking. "Trix, here girl!" she doubled back, "Thank you."

"Take a seat, I bring it out. You like?"

"A large vanilla latte with a lot of sugar please."

"How much sugar?"

"Seen The Fly with Jeff Goldblum?"

"No?"

"Bring a bowl of sugar and a spoon then please."

The man goes to the door, "MARCO! Grande vaniglia latte pronto!" he smiles, "We have it for you very quickly."

"Thanks."

"Ah! Water for your friend. One moment."

He ducks inside and grabs a bowl from behind the door, throws the water into the street and opens a fresh bottle. "I have three. No bambino, just my dogs."

Mattie heard the distinct sound of a dSLR shutter firing, didn't react. "How many branches do you have?"

"One, this. Your dog hungry? I have treats inside."

"Maybe a little one. Not too much, no poop bags."

"I have those too. I give you a couple for your big noisy purse."

Marco arrives with the large coffee.

"Thanks." her clutch buzzed away again.

"You're not answering?"

"Those buzzes are not family."

"Va bene. Gemsgems are who?"

Mattie looks down at her stomach, "Gem's Gems. A friends fashion label. I'd made this out of two pairs of jeans I was going to throw and thought I'd see if I can get her brand better known."

"Grazie, her's and mine may be better know tomorrow." he nods to a man on the other side of the road holding a camera with a huge lens.

Paparazzi? "Competition must be tough around here?"

He points up the road, "Costa, Starbucks," he turns, "Nero, Coffee Republic."

She almost wants to turn and look, but this was coffee talk not music. "But you're the only one who's offered Trixie a drink. Are there many dog owners around here?"

"Lots!"

"And they all know about you?"

"A few. Not enough."

Mattie started changing her pose, gain up hearing the camera clicking again. "Could you move the bowl between the tables? That's it." she unclips Trixie's lead, "Have a drink girl." then gets quickly to the road side of the table and sits back down as far forward in the seat as she can. "Stand smart, don't look at the camera, keep looking at me, talk and smile." Her clutch was buzzing away again. The camera clicked away in the distance.

"Your friend must be someone special to dare wear that here."

Mattie spoons a mass of sugar into her tall cup, "Oh she's that alright."

The man watches in amazement as the sugar continued to be spooned in, "You have a very sweet tooth for a lady with such a beautiful smile. Careful, the dentist will be not far behind."

"Thanks for your concern. That won't be a problem."

"You very active, burn it off fast?" He couldn't have gotten much closer to the truth. "Or how you say, beware the sugar crash?"

"Not a problem either."

"The inches on the hips?"

"Not a problem."

"He's going now."

Mattie turns to see, sticks two fingers in her mouth and blows hard for a shrill whistle. "Leaving without saying hello?"


	23. Chapter 23

The photographer was a part time pro, fed up with the wedding market becoming so polarised; People wanting everything for nothing. Or those willing to pay a fortune for the right results, but only to better known established photographers.

He no longer wanted to put up with the low end in order to try and climb to the top. He was trying to find his next niche.

Mattie told him she knew blogger who might know some people that would be interested in the images he'd taken, gives him a number to call.

Her phone buzzed again, this time in repeats of three short bursts. Sophie.

"Hi Teeny, what's up?"

"You're live on the Internet! What on earth are you wearing?"

"Jeans."

"That's not what we're seeing.."

"I cut them up."

"I know you've always said you're a badass sister but have you lost the plot?"

"Can you see my sign?"

"What sign?"

"Can you see me wave?"

"Yes."

"Am I pointing to your left or right?"

"Our left."

Mattie turns to her right and points again.

"Half as much again. Stop! Now up a bit. Stop!"

"Cheeky sods!"

"Mattie?"

"Someone's taped a phone to a lamp post."

"And it's running Periscope. And a load of people are tweeting."

"Okay, give me a moment Teeny. Trixie, here please."

With Trixie on the lead she walks as professionally as she can to the phone, points out the sign and invites everyone watching to London Fashion Week to see the Gem's Gems collection.

Message delivered she covers the camera lens with a finger and pulls it from the lamp post.

"Hay! That's mine!"

A teenage girl steps from the doorway of the next shop.

"So you thought you'd just film me?"

"You were the unexpected bonus."

"Bonus?"

"I was streaming the coffee shop before you arrived."

"Why?"

"I have my reasons."

"Good for him or not?"

The girls lips said nothing but expression said not.

"What's he done to hurt you?"

Silence.

"If you can't be nice, don't be horrible. Why were you streaming?"

"A group of people want him out. I'm not in the group as such, just the unfortunate niece of one who knew about Periscope."

"Why unfortunate?"

More silence. And body language.

"You'd rather not be doing this. Am I right?"

The girl nods.

"Is this thing still streaming?"

Another nod.

"So the microphone will have picked up everything."

The girls expression heads south fast. She closes her eyes, shakes her head and then opens them, looks Mattie in the eyes. Two words were mouthed, Rent Arrears.

Mattie turns the phone to face her. "To all fashion fans, hope to see you at LFW. To all of those wanting the coffee shop owner gone because he's behind with his rent, you're out of luck. This is Mattie for fashion label Gem's Gems signing off." she hands over the phone.

The girl closes the app. "God I'm in so much trouble now."

"Why?"

"The group wanted him out so another chain can come in."

"A chain? Coffee related?" it gets a nod, "Don't you think an independent is nice?"

The girls shoulders drop. "I lost my parents years ago. My aunt controls my inheritance until I'm eighteen."

"And how far away is that?"

"Three months. If I don't do as she wants she withholds my allowance, she's already threatened to not pay my school fees twice."

"That's blackmail."

"I know."

Mattie mumbles, "Frigging hell, does everyone have issues.."

"Sorry?"

"Sorry, that was more of a question to myself. Everywhere I go I seam to find someone that needs help. Do you like coffee?"

"Love it."

"Then join me for a cup."

~~~

Sat at a table inside Mattie looks around the shop, faces the owner, "I know you like dogs, how do you feel about synthetics?"

"Not big fan."

Shit. "Why's that?"

"Their owners ask for a cable to charge them while they have coffee, you see a cable?"

Mattie looks around, there were none, only a single mains socket on the far wall.

"The last lady she went crazy mad."

"So it's the owners not the synths you have an issue with?"

"Si."

"Good. I understand from our chat earlier you could do with some help? How do you fancy a couple of business partners?"

"Partners?"

"I give you a small cash injection so you can pay all your rent for a few months, I have some of my James friends come in and help give the place a makeover? Get you connected tables synths can charge at." she turns to the teenager, "And you get your school fees covered and a small allowance. I'm guessing you're busy with sixth form, so I'll only ask that you give an hour a week for social media help."

"You want me to join him in business?"

"Why not? My friend Daniel started a multi-million pound firm from his bedroom when he was a similar age."

The girl sits mouth open, looking back and forth between Mattie and the owner.

The owner puts a hand out, "I am Francesco."

She takes it, "I'm Evelyn."

Mattie smiles, points to her belly, "I think you know who I am. My mother is a good lawyer if you want a hand with contracts. Evelyn I take it one of the group is Francesco's landlord?"

"Landlady."

"Is she looking for higher rents?"

"Always."

"Then we'll put this place on the map. Pet friendly, Synth friendly, a place for friends two and four legged to come and relax. What's on the floor above?"

"Nothing."

"So customers can't use it?"

"No."

"What's access like?"

"There are stairs through that door."

"Great. Give us a month and you'll be the place hot on everyone's lips."

"Thank you. But why you do this?"

"Because I can. And before you ask the question, pay the favour forwards, help someone else out."

"Like how?"

"Any homeless people looking like they'd accept a job?"

Evelyn half laughs, "In London? Plenty! With rates for a flat so high working in a place like this they wouldn't earn enough."

"Ha! That sounds like a challenge if ever I heard one. Doctor Matilda Elster-Hawkins never backs away from a challenge."

"Shit! It _is_ you. Holy shit!"

Francesco frowns, "It is she? I am missing something?"

"If you ever wanted a sentient post human synth to endorse your product she's it!"

Mattie frowns, "You what?"

"You've not been keeping up with the weekly magazines then? People that can show you using their products get an advertising boost."

Crap. Just the sort of thing the DCL marketing exec should have known about. "I'd had my sights on the monthlies. Big oops. I've not seen many photographers about?"

"Everyone with a smart phone is one these days. And they can be silent."

"True."

Francesco's frown hadn't stopped, "If you're a synthetic why you drink?"

"Because I can. And the sugar burns nicely to give me power."

"I sees. Another?"

"Thanks."

As he steps away to make it Mattie looks at her new acquaintance, "I love your look by the way. What's the name for that style of dress?"

"Peplum Hem. It's called Crysta. From Coast."

"Paired with the black leggings and high boots it looks great. So not your typical student look."

"Thanks."

Mattie created a mental image of the dress with Peplum Hem tag. She felt a little sorry for the men, their fashion was so limited in comparison. Her catalogue of skirts was large; accordion, a-line, asymmetrical, box pleated, bubble, circle, draped, godet, gypsy, knife pleated, layered, mermaid, mini, panelled, pencil, ruffled, tube, tulip, wrap and yoke-waist. That alone was way more options than men had, the dress list was way larger. She suddenly pictures Leo in a kilt and fights the urge to laugh. "Planning to go to university?"

"Yeah, interior design."

Mattie glances around the store, "Nice. Done much like that at school?"

"Some."

"Fancy leading the makeover of this place then?"

The girl looks frightened, "I've made a few small models in school, nothing for real."

"Open up a notepad in your phone, I'll give you a name, address and phone number. Come along tomorrow afternoon if you can and you can redesign the whole thing stood inside a virtual reality shop, do as many versions as you want until you're happy with the look. We can then show Francesco."

The girl hands over her phone and metaphorically catches flies for a few seconds. "Do you realise how much experience that would give me that my peers wouldn't have?"

"Yup. Good eh?" two cups are placed on the table, "Help Francesco and Marco here out and in turn I'll help you out. Our firm DCL is always looking for new markets. You could head an interiors design division if you don't feel comfortable going alone. Being part of the group brings a ton of benefits. I'll take a quick look upstairs to understand the space."

As Mattie rushes to the stairs the girls mouth opens and closes like a goldfish, no words come out. Mattie can be heard running quickly upstairs and then back down.

"I'll take that as a stunned thanks." she necks the hot coffee. "Thanks Francesco, Marco, lovely meeting you. Trixie dear, we're off to finish the lap. Can you make tomorrow Evelyn?"

The girl nods, as if in a dream.

"Good, see you tomorrow. Arrivederci!"


	24. Chapter 24

Harun pulls the last strap tight and taps the return key, closes his eyes and pulls down the visor. Mattie had allowed him access to her designs and he'd made copies, sitting one machine inside the other. The ultimate video conferencing system. "Hello George, been waiting long?"

"No, not long." he moves about. "This sensory bridge app is rather good. There's quite a bit of latency still even with the new DSL line but it's acceptable."

"So where are you now?"

"Tucked up in bed with Isobel. If I vanish from here it's because she's woken up."

"Understood."

"Is Karen joining us?"

"She accepted the meeting request."

"Good. She started this, I wouldn't want to exclude her. How's the design looking so far?"

"Quite good actually, considering. With regular body updates like Ted it should work."

Karen pops into view, "Hi, sorry I'm late."

"No problem, we've not been in here long."

"How regular?"

"Six months for the first couple of years, then yearly for ten, then biannually."

Harun loads up the design.

"Wow!"

"It's gorgeous!"

"Thanks. The wind your neck in and Hoberman ideas have worked well. The limb strength won't be anything like a normal synth but a human baby's wouldn't be that strong either. The skin is softer and can bunch and stretch, it will grow from new born to six months like this."

An animation plays.

"I want one!"

"Karen?"

"Isobel and I can fall pregnant at the same time, support each other."

"Does Pete know?"

"Not yet."

Harun brings the model back to the start. "There's one issue. You'll need a C section twice. Once to get it in, another to get it out. A synths lower regions wasn't designed to deliver a baby, there's not a conventional womb."

Karen steps around the floating design, "Are the Hoberman parts as closed as they can go?"

"No, there's a bit of slack left. Why?"

"Can you close up the slack? Wind it all in?"

"It will look horrible."

"Humour me."

"Okay."

They all watch as the design wrinkles up and gets smaller still.

"The head can't get any smaller, the core isn't collapsible."

"That will do. Can you design Iso and I new bodies, have them built with one of those inside? It could slowly expand to the previous start position over six months."

"We've never built a synth within a synth before."

Harun brings up a new animation. "I'm glad you said new bodies. It makes it less awkward to mention this. Power. Or feeding. If the baby's lips have a flexible coil around them and you have a coil in your breasts you could let it suckle power. It sucks on the nipple to engage the power."

"Pete's waking, get designing, got to go!" She vanishes as fast as she'd arrived.

George smiled, "Well done Harun, that makes me very happy. Hobb had called breasts an unnecessary functionless weight to get in the way on a synth. He'll be prove wrong. If we're designing Mum we could run a feed from the food processor tanks up to the breasts, add a small.."

"George! Do you really want to be doing nappy changes on a synth?"

"Ah. No. Forget I said anything. Power will suffice. Anything you need from me?"

"I think I'm good."

"I'll leave you to it then. Brilliant work. You'd have been a great addition to the team when this all started, assuming you were around at the time."

"Thanks George."

"Until next time." Pop and George was gone.

"Awesome. Stick that up your exhaust pipe Persona. DCL rule."


	25. Chapter 25

Mattie rolls over and feels Leo's chest hair. "Anything planned for today?"

"Morning Angel. Making sure all my camera batteries are charged for tomorrow. Apart from that, nothing."

"Fancy meeting Evelyn over at Sentinel with me?"

"Is the extra PC still in the room?"

"Yes."

"Okay, I can code and talk to you both at the same time. Then I won't be in so much of a rush later in the week." he rolls over, kisses her sign, "@LFW. Mattie" he kisses both x. "If you'd had Silas do that you'd have it off already. A bit of a crazy stunt to pull but sometimes that's just what's needed."

"Act in haste.. I know. I had no idea they'd all react with each other like that."

"Jump in the shower and I'll give you another gentle scrub down." he rolls over and gets his phone, "This is my favourite. See how it looks converted to black and white."

"Wow! Look how Trixie is posing. Francesco looks very natural. I'd love a large print of that."

"I'll email him back asking for a price. It's his image after all."

The top of the phone displays a message, yet another retweet of a photo snapped yesterday.

Spotted the major thing missing?"

"No?"

"Where's his shop's name? It's just a plain facade."

"No wonder people don't know about him."

"How about suggesting a name?"

"Hmm.. Paws for coffee?"

"Something along those lines. Seen the count of posts and reposts?"

"No."

He grins, "I coded up a web page that gets a hashtag summary from all of the social media sites, take a look on your slate when we're dressed."

"Can't I use the phone?"

"Too much info to fit. Come on, let's see if you scrub up nicely."

She chases him off his side of the bed, laughter in her voice, "You cheeky git!"

~~~

Mattie looks at the Slate while Leo drives, "Oh. My. Word!"

"I bet you didn't expect that."

"Nasty retweet minority aside that's brilliant!"

"I think the way you accessorised made it more classy than trashy. Well done Angel."

"Thanks Bunny." She watches the page auto-refresh. "This would be an awesome marketing tool for us."

"I thought you'd like it. See the clock icon top right?"

"Yes?"

"Tap it."

She does so and the screen clears. A moment later one of the graphics returns with a count. Twitter. 103 in green, 2 in red. A time bar along the bottom advances as a second graphic appears.

"It looks at all the data and does an optimised layout, most significant sources are placed in the centre. For the time lapse it then hides them until they have a count other than zero. I've got some text parsing code that makes a decision on it being positive or negative. If you tap one of the graphics it takes you to a page with the text."

Mattie does so and laughs, "I think your code needs a tweak. A false negative."

"Which one?"

"Look at this hot bitch strutting her stuff! Sexy Mama! See you and #GemsGems at LFW! Louisa x x x"

Leo is laughing so hard Bart has to take over steering for a moment. He wipes tears from his eyes, "Hot bitch? Okay, I'll add something to it's fact store."

"It's sentient?"

"No, just using a similar read only data structure. All of the raw data from the social media sites is saved away for any other processing you'd like. For example if you did a campaign where you tweeted or posted multiple times we could graph how the response went up or down."

"When did you start coding this?"

"The minute Sophie came running saying you were on Periscope."

"So you knew then, I'd not realised."

"We should have done this ages ago. I quickly wrote some code to gather data and drop it into files. One per post or page so we didn't miss anything. With that running I started on code to parse the data in the files into database entries. Next came the report GUI. Then the code to rate good or bad and a fix to the GUI to show the colours and numbers."

"Wow. How long did that take?"

"Not long, Sophie set the fan up to cool me down. Don't try overclocking and using a laptop like a fab, I've worn the keyboard out. I had to use Mia's keyboard API trick to finish it all off."

They pull into the drive to see Evelyn waiting outside.

Mattie jumps out, "Didn't anyone answer the doorbell?"

"Hi Mattie. No, I don't think anyone is in."

Mattie tries it. "This is Leo by the way, he'll be working on some code and chatting to us."

"Hi Leo."

The door opens to reveal Emily in a silk wrap gown, "Hi Mattie, sorry, was otherwise engaged."

'Wearing Danny out again?'

'What else?' "Come in."


	26. Chapter 26

Evelyn pulls down the visor as instructed and opens her eyes. "Fuck me! Oops. Sorry. Shouldn't swear."

"Good eh? My Uni team helped me develop it for my treatment of Leo. We then went on to help a mass of PTSD patients with it. It's one of the reasons why I have a doctorate and Nobel prise."

"It's so realistic. This is built just from what you could see yesterday?"

"Yeah. You can take the stairs and have a look on the upper floor too."

"How?"

"Walk there. Or ask to do a jump. Prefix anything you want to say to the system with computer."

"Okay. Computer, put me in the room upstairs... Holy Cow!"

Mattie looks at the monitor and smiles, it had got her feet correctly on the floor, not made the mistake it had made with the Land Rover all those years ago.

"Back down stairs please. Computer, back down stairs please. Thanks. How do I do anything else?"

"The same way. Imagine you have an army of decorators, carpenters and electricians. All called Computer. Just ask and watch it happen. If you want a light fitting, for example, ask for a visual catalogue and pick one."

"Okay. Computer, please strip the old paper off the walls. Holy cow.. that was fast! Computer, remove old lighting, all tables and chairs, all wood paneling. Wow, wow, wow! Computer, please paint all walls white.."

Ten minutes later Mattie turns and smiles at Leo, 'She's enjoying this.'

'She's a natural. You need to make sure she doesn't take the idea and give it to someone else.'

'It's not like you to be so negative?'

'Did you get her to sign the NDA?'

'Ah!' "Evelyn, can we take a break for a few minutes please?"


	27. Chapter 27

It's early morning the day after their marathon interior design session. Mattie wraps an arm around Fred's shoulder, "So this is what you were sketching with Ems at the get together at Sentinel?"

"It was, yes."

"It's beautiful Fred, really beautiful."

"Thank you."

"How many tons?"

"More than I imagined. White marble is heavy."

"Sorry to hear you had to do it twice."

"The first had an internal fault line I couldn't see until it was much too late."

They both look at the statue of A1 and L1 that now stood in front of the steps on the other side of the gravel drive. A reminder of the love that the two had for each other, that backups were important and evil should never be allowed to win. The morning sun had just risen above the tree line, their shadow looked huge.

"Mattie?"

She turns to see one of the angels.

"Hi."

"Can mass production of the Leo Angels start or was L1 the first and last?"

"I think that's up to Leo. Bunny?"

The permanent Mona Lisa smile said happy, the tone of her voice betrayed her true feelings. He steps to her and wraps an arm around her, "Yes, yes of course. Talk to George, he's .."

There's silence except for the chirping of birds in the distance.

"Leo? Leo what's wrong?"

"I've just had a thought. I could be wrong, need to check something quickly. Give me ten minutes okay?"

"Okay?"

"Hold this please." he hands the angel his camera and races up the steps to the factory entrance.

"Any idea what he's gone to check Mattie?"

"None. But I've not seen him run that fast in years. That's what earned my Bunny his Energiser Bunny nickname."

"I know, we were both there, root of fork."

~~~

Leo gets to the two large build machines dedicated to Angel production, uses his sleeve to wipe the thin film of dust off the large touchscreen. He impatiently taps the screen a few times and talks to himself, "Wake up Builder One.. I need to check something."

With his gain right up he can hear a set of CPU fans start to spin as the beast comes out of it's partial hibernation. It had a very smart controller, but it wasn't AI. It was however a monster. When they'd built them Danny had given them two of his latest servers, not having anything smaller to hand. He'd called them split brainers. They had a lot of 32 core CPUs. If not required for a while it could move processes to other CPU cores and put whole CPU into a low voltage hibernation or power them off all together. With only a single CPU powered up it was still extremely capable of performing well.

The screen turns from black to white then draws a login prompt. He searches his memories for the moment he'd seen Danny at the on screen keyboard tapping a name and password. His hand partially hid some of the key taps but knowing how large his hand was it was possible to estimate the keys he'd have hit. A few combinations later and he's in and checking code and config. He smiles to himself. "Thank you."

With the machine logging him off he starts his run back to the others. A MUS had entered the corridor. "James, doing anything particular?"

"No Sir."

"Can you guide the Angel build machines please? Nobody is to touch them but me. Not even Danny, David or George."

"Okay Sir. Should someone want to use them what should I say?"

"They have to talk to me first."


	28. Chapter 28

"Everything loaded GJ?"

"It is Mattie, we're good."

"Awesome. Watch out LFW, here we come!" she puts her hand in the air and draws a big clockwise circle twice and climbs onboard.

The pilot she'd said goodbye to in New York years ago gets the helicopter rotor blades spinning up as she puts her headset on. "Thanks for the job Mrs Elster-Hawkins, I never expected to see you again in person."

"Mattie, the name's Mattie. And if this helps get your new business in the news in America it's been worth it. Jimmy, Quench, you all set?"

"Ropes all ready."

"Sure the weight won't be an issue?"

"We've load tested, it's good."

'See you at the gig Bunny, be safe!'

'You too Angel.' Leo smiled to himself as he filmed the helicopter take off from the Elster estate. As it disappeared over the trees he walked over to Mia and put the camera in the bag.

"Ready for some speed?" Mia hands him a crash helmet.

"Ready if you are."

"Okay Nis, you lead."

~~~

Max, Paul, David, Iain and Cindy were already at the venue. David and Iain had front row seats either side of the nervous Cindy to keep her company. A program sat on the empty seat between Iain and Cindy.

Jessica the ten year old was getting ready with her mother Michelle, as were Jeff and Emily. Gem James was with them as guard and for any emergency costume fixes.

"Mum, how long until our bit?"

"A while, sorry. Want to play a game or something?"

He turns from his mother, "What games do you play Jessica?"

"Scrabble, 2048, Heads Up! That's my favourite."

"What's that?"

"You hold your phone to your head for others to see, it displays a word they have to describe and you have to guess it before you run out of time."

"Can we all play?"

"Sure, Mummy, may I have my phone please?"

Twenty minutes later Whittier says "Long nose, sucks up little insects that try and get into the house, some fly."

"Ant Eater!"

"Laura? We weren't expecting you?"

"Hi Ems, MTV Coverage. Someone called in sick. Who's your friend Jeff?"

"Laura, this is Jessica. Jessica this is our friend Laura."

Emily smiled warmly, his manners were okay from day one and were improving further. The two ladies air kiss.

Jessica gives her a look, "Are you the lady on the television?"

"One of many. I better move along, can't be seen to show favouritism." she whispers, "Even if I am wearing a Gem's Gem. Nobody else is making online ordered bespoke dresses custom cut to the buyers body shape. Well not like you yet. Good luck guys!"

~~~

Mattie gets a message from Leo via his bridge app, Mia and Nis were changing, he was outside with Paul and Max, they were ready with their cameras. He'd be shooting medium coverage, Paul wide angle and Max close up with his long zoom. They'd let Toby mix between all the footage in editing. "Everyone ready?"

"Ready!"

Samantha, Quench and Sandra were stood on one side, a foot each in a loop in the rope. Mattie, Jimmy and Sally were on the other.

Jimmy nods, "Any issues and you scream your head off. We don't want anyone falling. On three Quench!"

The three photographers watch as the helicopter doors slide open and long black ropes uncoil to the ground. As soon as they hit Jimmy and Quench push away, the groups of three slide rapidly down the rope. Jimmy didn't mind the tight forearm handshake from Mattie stopping his blood flow, they'd be on the ground soon enough. The ladies were not quite horizontal, the arm lengths allowing them to lean right out.

As they get close Jimmy pushes the heal of his left foot down hard on the top of his right making the break slow them further. "Okay ladies, fifty feet, thirty, twenty, free foot ready, six, .. .. , three, two, one, touchdown."

With the loops on the ground they step forwards out of them and smile at the crowd of photographers. If you were going to make a scene stealing entrance you might as well go all out.

"All clear Sarge!"

"Clear here!"

'All clear!' The helicopter ascends as the winches topside pull the ropes up. 'Thanks! Get a James to help tow it into the hanger and order you a taxi to get you back here.'

'Thanks Mattie, have fun!'

She smiled widely, boy these fab-synth mic and earpiece links were awesome. Danny was awesome.

The six stand and pose for a while as the flashguns pop.

Jimmy never expected to get back into fatigues again, let alone have a helicopter drop in front of the worlds media in Soho. He and quench stood feet apart, arms behind with hands linked at the small of their back. Their arms gave the ladies something to hang from when they leaned back, moving around doing a number of well choreographed poses.

Jimmy kept his serious face on and smiles inside. Dropping with a synth to either side in their swimsuit dress hybrid costumes made it more interesting, thankfully their rehearsals had gone well. And being synths they didn't forget the moves easily. Being a fashion accessory wasn't something he'd put on the CV, Quench though, he could see him going for it large.

Jimmy grinned to himself. He was going to be stealthily updating his wife's wardrobe. Silas's Sandra was doing something for him, or rather her fashion style. "Shall we head in?"

"Sure." as Mattie gets close to the first of the reporters she calls out, "SWAGGER AND SASS, S.A.S. By Gem's Gems." she smiles, 'Mia, Nis, is she here yet?'

'She's here.'

'Fab!'


	29. Chapter 29

Jason shoulders open the door, a mountain of sun bleached post on the other side, "Sure you'd rather be here and not with your sister in Soho?"

"Not really, I'd have liked to see Cindy's collection. But if I didn't collect the keys today I wouldn't have them for at least a couple of months, he's flying home to see family."

"Couldn't he have left them with an agent?"

"You'd think so, he insisted that we meet as it's a private sale."

Jason stands back, "Ladies first."

Sophie does a theatrical run into the building and turns in ever decreasing circles until she's doing a series of grand pirouettes. "I love it!"

Jason sneezes violently, "The Miss Sophie Hawkins School of Dance has a nice ring to it. The place is all yours now. Dust, dead post and all."

"I'm sure with a little help it will clean up nicely."

Jason takes off his jacket and folds it over the handrail along the mirrored wall. "I'll see if there's a broom anywhere."

Sophie examines the antique parquet flooring. There were no obvious signs of damage, nothing a dancer doing a slide could get a splinter from. She'd have it sanded and revarnished just in case.

"Said the building was good did he?"

"Yes?"

"The family of doves in the far back room might say otherwise. The roof is damaged."

She sighs, "How badly?"

"It's nothing that can't be fixed, although the damp wall might take a while to dry out before it can be repapered. Why didn't you inspect it before buying?"

"The land is ours, good building or not. Worst case we ask some James if they'd like to help us out."

"Did it come with planning permission?"

"No, but absolute worst case we'd rebuild like for like looks wise with better materials. Where are the doves?"

~~~

Sophie smiled at the five snow white birds. She'd fully expected them to get ready to fly off when she came into the room. Instead they gave her one of her own looks, a tilted head, questioning stare. "They're beautiful!"

Jason steps quietly through the room and points to a nest, "I think three of them hatched right here." He turns to see Sophie on her phone.

"Hi Dad, do you have much planned for next weekend? I was wondering if you could make us a bird house for a family of doves at the dance school? Yes, the roof at the back is broken. Yay! Love you Dad! Yes, see you tonight."

Jason takes a snap of Sophie next to the birds, "I'll take doves as a good omen, I think you'll do well here Soph."

"Thanks, sure you don't mind me using my maiden name?"

"Of course not, as I said, it's got a nice ring to it. Most people can't pronounce Vasilyevykh anyway. I think you should change the silhouette in the logo."

"How?"

"It should be you mid pirouette, an arm up and out with a dove, wings out perched on your hand."

"You think the doves will stay long term?"

"Hopefully. And your dance brings peace."

She gives him a hug and rests her face against his chest, "Thanks for coming with me."

"How could I miss it? Your sister feeds kid's minds, your dancing feeds their souls." it gets him another hug.

"You know we could both become Hawkins, drop Vasilyevykh?"

"Not while Dad's still about, he's very proud of the name. I wouldn't mind, I don't have an accent that fits having been born in the UK, but it still gets me some grief."

"Even now?"

"People think I'm from an English family until they see my surname, then their expressions visibly change when they read or hear my name."

"Wouldn't your father understand if it's causing problems?"

"I'm not sure he would. Let's have a better look around. This room's obviously part of a ground floor extension, let's see what's upstairs."


	30. Chapter 30

"Mum, can you check please?"

"Decent?"

"Yup."

Emily nods to Gem James who lowers the hoop they'd attached a long curtain to so the kids could have some privacy while changing. "Wow, what a smart young man."

He sees Jessica's hoop is already on the floor and turns to see her having her hair pinned up. "Thanks Mum, you look great Jessica."

"Thank you kind sir." They both giggle for a while. "Nervous?"

"No. Are you?"

"Yes. I've not done anything like this since junior school plays."

"I'll be by your side, you'll be fine."

The two Mums exchange glances.

Mattie rushes over, an arm being fed through the top of a dress, "Two minutes to the big ending guys!"

"We're almost ready."

"Cool. Everyone know the plan?"

"Yeah."

"Great!" she rushes off to get ready for her final walk down the runway. 'Iain .. now!'

~~~

"Oh my God! Not now!" Iain turns to Cindy, "Just got a bump from Mattie, zip jam, James can't budge it, she wants your help." He guides her to the back, Mattie having shared memories of the route earlier. "This way."

With him so tall she's blindly following his every turn, walking fast to keep up. "Why didn't she tell me direct?"

"No idea? Panic?"

"Of all the times.."

"I know! You really didn't need this now, keep calm, I'm sure your delicate hands will have it fixed in seconds."

Two arms link with hers.

"Thanks Iain!"

He steps aside and Cindy realises she's being guided down the catwalk, Gemma to her left, Mattie to her right. It's too late to do anything about it. At the far end are Jimmy and Quench, stood to attention in the corners, looking out into the audience.

Gemma is passed a microphone, "Ladies and Gentlemen, I've been the public face of Gem's Gems for a little while, I'd like you all to meet the lady behind the company, it's creator and designer Cindy Elster."

Cindy needs a gentle push from behind to take a step forward. 'Guys!'

There's a flickering of flash guns.

'Don't be shy, you so deserve this.'

'Thanks Mia.'

'What she said!'

'Thanks Mattie.'

"Hello everyone, thanks for such a warm response, it's really appreciated. I wouldn't be here in front of you all if it wasn't for a number of people, Commander Niska Millican gave me my first break. Mrs Candlin gave me a job helping make clothes and costumes, Leo and Silas helped with early designs and inspiration. And Gemma helped with her wonderful support. She and Laura have helped get our clothes into many publications. Last but no means least I owe a massive thanks to Gem James, our former Military Unit Synth and brilliant tailor. I stand on the shoulders of an amazing team. Where are you James?"

He shuffles sideways through the archway, goes to take a step onto the runway, 'I'm not comfortable that it will take our combined weight.'

'Give everyone a wave from there then.'

'Okay Mattie.'

Mia, Niska, Samantha, Sandra, Sally, Mattie, Jeff and Jessica are giving her a mass of hugs and congratulations when Cindy spots a huge bouquet of flowers out of the corner of her eye.

It lowers to reveal a beaming Patch. "Well done!"

"Patch! When did you get here?"

"I've been hidden in the back row watching it all with Leo."

"Why there?"

"So I could take it all in, also you'd have been a lot more nervous with me by your side."

Jimmy and Quench turn and walk to the ends of the group for a final photo before they clear the stage for the next fashion house.

Emily had rushed to the end of the runway to take a snap with her phone, realises it's far too wide angle. "Blast!"

"Allow me." Max snaps a group shot just as Jeff is linking hands with Jessica. "Looks like he's smitten. Who knows, maybe I'll be holding their wedding service in ten or so years."

"Give them a chance! I had loads of boyfriends before I met Danny."

"No rush, I'll be around for a long long while."

Jimmy talks knowing the microphone would pick it up and say his words to his team mate and everyone else. "Got your backup plan running Quench?"

"Yeah, second session with George only last Tuesday. And you Sarge?"

"Last Monday. The misses is going to get some of my little army frozen just in case. She doesn't want to fall until we're in the new house and the renovations are done."

"Sarge, would you ever go back, our old work?"

"Running around in the dark, being shot at, are you fucking mad? No thanks, I've finally found a place I can call home. Fifteen minutes walk from Little Angels."

Mattie smiled, the family was growing larger and stronger. Enough years and it would include a measurable proportion of the worlds population.

Data Centre halls A1 and L1 were under construction in the large underground car parks, Toby had nicknamed the location Deep Thought. He and Holly-Anne were out there supervising a load of James. Danny reckoned there would be enough capacity to back up several hundred thousand people if they filled it with the latest DCL servers.

Mia grabbed Mattie's hand to lead her off the stage, "Hello? Mattie? Day dreaming again?"

"What? Oh, yeah. Thinking about our future."

"Gem's Gems or the family's?"

"Mankind's."

"I see. The _Big_ picture."

"Yeah. Earth's future is going to be a bright healthy Hobb free one or my name isn't Doctor Matilda Elster-Hawkins. Right, lead me to the after party."

"Is there one?"

"I'd be shocked if there wasn't!"

"Cindy! Mattie! Mia! Can we have an interview?"

They weren't calling her Doctor Elster-Hawkins or Matilda. Just one word. Mattie. Wonderful!


	31. Chapter 31

Toby calls the Gem's team via their app. "Morning! I've copied down the video files, will get editing soon. How was it?"

"Awesome! Cindy got so much coverage her order books are full for the next month. And that's with twenty James volunteering their bodies to be temporary Gem James copies."

"Sweet. The James here are steaming ahead, should be ready for racks in a fortnight, just waiting on the electricity supplier to fit a new substation for power."

"Shame there's not enough power off the roof cells."

"It helps a little, Dan says the Tesla cells we're using as UPS backup should give the servers about thirty seconds to shut down in case of total power failure."

"Only thirty?"

"Solid state drives remember, they shut down real fast. And there could be a lot of them."

"How many is a lot?"

"Hi Mattie, I estimate around eighty times the rack space, and with the higher density servers we should have around two hundred times the compute power. Assuming my cooling capacity equations are accurate."

"Frigging A! When did you get out there?"

"Just this minute arrived."

"Cool! With that much compute power imagine what Hols and Ems could do.."

Danny appears in the view and is doing cut signs.

"Wicked! Make It So!"

Mattie watches Danny glance at Emily who must have been stood behind the tablet. Oops. His expression said he wasn't too happy with the idea.

Toby moves closer to the camera, "In other news Hols and I have finally agreed on names for the kids."

"Frigging hell KC, took you both long enough!"

"Couldn't possibly comment."

"So what did you pick?"

"Kicker is going to be called Kirk. If anyone dares ask where the name comes from I'll never talk to you again and you can forget any edits. Ever."

"Okay Admiral Hawkins."

Toby gives her a squint and waits to see if a further piss take would follow. It doesn't. "Tumbler is going to be called Thomas aka Tommy as he's already grabbing pens off us and drawing scribbles. Fidget is now Fiona, meaning white or fair. Boxer is going to be called Nicola after Nicola Adams as she's also got a wicked punch."

"Ha! Too true. What happened to using MJN names?"

"We scrapped that idea, didn't want to weird them all out."

"Gotcha. How's Eric?"

"He's good, apparently he spent a lot of time walking around in the garden when we were downstairs. I think he'll be happier when there's more fabs about again. It must be a bit lonely when the place is empty."

"Tell Jimmy he and his can use PA as a base while they do all the renovations."

"Will do. One of the James here called others over, they're helping him out with the heavy lifting."

"I'll miss him, he's the best of the bunch."

"I don't think you'll get the chance, he'll be on the app a lot, says he's going to be over once a month to see the rest of the sales team in person, talk strategy for Europe."

"Cool, we should sync diaries and have a film or song night."

"I think they'd like that. Talking of things being liked, Mum and Dad have committed to the Eighty Plan."

"NO FRIGGING WAY! How do you know and not me?"

"I had a call with them ten minutes before this one. Mum had the documents on the kitchen worktop. I recognised the header."

"I've been wondering for a long while when they'd make their minds up. Wow."

"Hols and I have decided to sign ours too. The kids can sign theirs when they're eighteen."

"It will be cool to be able to head bump stuff with you properly, but that's a long wait."

"Don't wish my life away chops!"

"Soz!"

Danny can be seen watching someone go. "So we all know what Ems wants to do with new servers. What would Mark Watney do with them? That's a lot of capacity."

Her reply was simple enough. "Easy! Make colonisation of Mars a lower risk reality." it was meant as a joke.

Mia sits down next to Mattie, hands over a sugar loaded coffee.

He came back with an alternative, "We could do with a big long term project. How about we start much closer to home. Mark Watney was Matt Damon, Matt was also Max Da Costa in Elysium. How about we build Elysium? Not as homes for the super rich but a giant set of hospitals for everyone on the planet? It would take a huge investment and many many years. But every journey starts the same, with a first single step."

"Ha! Make It So! I wish it were that simple."

"We might just have an in."

"How? I can't think of anyone in the circle I can call on."

"Not yours ours."

"Eh?"

"Who have we been ordering all the large power cells off for the homes in Antigua? The ones with the solar roofs?"

"Tesla."

"And who is the head of Tesla?"

"FRIGGING HELL! Mr Space X!"

Mia hands over a plate of cakes, "Raised your sights a bit?"

"Yeah, you could say, to the heavens. You put a fork of yourself in Gerti, how do you feel about seeing the moon even closer and flying a medical shuttle?"

Danny taps the glass of the tablet his end, "Don't get your hopes up, there's a shit ton of reality the film makers park at the door. Like solar radiation for one. If that's not solved and the place is outside Earth's protective magnetic field we'd be slowly killing anyone we took up there."

"How many years did it take to get from David's Odin to the latest DCL model?"

"Loads!"

"Well then. Go slow, solve one problem at a time. We'll be around a good while."


	32. Chapter 32

Mid morning the following day Leo's sat on the sofa flicking through one of Laura's magazines. He's looking out for Gem's Gems dresses, having a lazy day and waiting for Mattie.

Mattie looks at her phone, she'd just got four almost simultaneous messages. The partial message from Karen was at the top of the screen.

The 628843 unlock code tapped and a quick swipe showed the messages were all exactly the same. "13:00. Extended Family Lunch @ SH. Everyone invited. No excuses accepted. BIG NEWS!" she looks up at Leo. "What's all that about?" 

"No idea." he reaches over and grabs his phone, he'd ignored the buzzing. "I got them too."

"George had a large part of the factory sectioned off, some secret project."

"He did? Which bit?"

"A section down the long west wall. It enclosed a build machine and the two big sintering machines either side."

Leo's brow folds, "Another car maybe? He'd not need both the sintering machines unless he was building something big."

"Why would those four be sending messages and not him then?"

"Maybe it's a one seater smart car for ladies?"

"We'll see soon enough."

Leo pockets the phone, "Want to head over there now, chat with Dan and Ems?"

Mattie's typing speed increases, "Give me half an hour to wrap up queueing these posts."

"Okay." there was little point mentioning using an API, when his wife really wanted to do something old school that's what she stuck to.

~~~

Emily was running around doing everything.

"What can I help with Ems?"

"You can check the sausage rolls aren't burning."

"Sure. Mia not helping with the cooking?"

"Not today."

They hear the door bell chime in the distance, Pete's tone.

Leo gets up, "I'll do door duty."

"Thanks Leo."

He returns moments later with George, Niska, Odi and Pete.

"Hi everyone."

"Hi Mattie. Any idea what the occasion is?"

"No idea Niska. I suspect you do George."

"I might."

She reads his body language, "And you Pete, your face says you know something."

"I'd be lying if I said I didn't and you'd know the second I said it."

"Where's Karen? Why didn't she come with you?"

"Karen, Isobel, Samantha and Mia will arrive together. Moral support she said."

"Giving or receiving?"

"Can we stop the game of twenty questions else I'm likely to fuck up and give the game away and spoil the moment."

"Sorry, sure. Shit! Sausage rolls!"

They watch her race inside.

Pete smiles, "Glad to see she's not the only one that can be distracted."

~~~

The numbers slowly grow, more food is brought out and put on the table. Several ice buckets with wine, beers and Champagne are added.

Toby rubs shoulders with Harun, "I've been picking up some of Mattie's skills, something tells me you know what's going on. And so far you've been doing synth or clothes designs. Branching out into other areas?"

"Don't you start, I've already had a grilling from Mattie, Danny and Emily."

They watch as Pete quickly walks around the groups of people. "Is David here?"

"Just popped to the loo."

"Thanks George." he raises his phone. "All here."

Sophie hands glasses to Jason, Andrea, Tommy, Cindy and Patch, puts the small tray on the grass. "Ted, Susie, Jeff, Jess mind you don't tread on this when you're running about."

"Okay Teeny Auntie."

"It's Auntie Teeny!"

"Okay Teeny Auntie!"

The four run off giggling wildly.

~~~

Danny leaves Emily's side for a moment and finds Whittier, dangles a set of keys, "Your car passed the M.O.T. It's in the hanger. James will be expecting you."

"Thank you Daniel! Thank you so much!" she gives him a hug and peck on the cheek.

"Thank you for the idea, another nice product in the catalogue. Easy on the accelerator, it's a bit nippy. You'll easily break motorway speed limits in first gear."

~~~

Emily had seen how Danny looked at Whittier, takes Mattie to one side, "I need your thoughts on something."

"A drawing?"

"No, surgery."

"Why would you want that? You look great Ems."

"Thanks, it's not for my looks. It's removing some sensors. From down there." she points downwards. "My relationship with Danny is.. heading south."

"OMG Ems! Don't have sensors removed, that's a drastic last resort! What if something goes wrong and you lose all feeling down there? You'd need yet another body."

"I'd rather that than lose Danny. He's finding it all too much. I guess for him it's not as special when it's all the time. I know I need to calm things down but it's hard when I'm constantly getting data."

"Constantly?"

"I'm wondering if it's something build related. My first one caused George a ton of grief, maybe I was always wired differently, even as a fab?"

"Ask George or David for the beer buzz code, only ask them to modify it to lessen the intensity of sensor data when you're thinking about.." she felt a hand pulling at her dress.


	33. Chapter 33

She turns to see the fast four. "Hi Kids." 'Can we talk later in private Ems? I'm sure the code mod would help.'

'Sure, thanks.'

"Auntie Mattie?"

"Yes Jeff."

"What does Open Source mean?"

"Blimey! That's a good question. We should get your school along to some of our lectures."

"Mum says the PTA say the school can't afford it."

"Really? We hardly charge a thing. It's mainly a little donation to cover lunch these days. I'll have a chat with mummy later, see if we can get them to change their minds, okay?"

"Thank you Auntie Mattie."

"You're welcome Jeff. You can drop the auntie bit if you'd like?"

"Okay. So what is Open Source and why is it better?"

"Better than what?"

"Christopher said Open Source is better."

"Who's he?"

"A boy at school in the next year. He says his dad is a coder and is working on a new Open Source AI with a lot of other people."

Mattie felt a horrible tingle not unlike goose bumps. The beer buzz HAL was doing something unexpected.

"He is is he? Ted were you with Jeff when he mentioned it?"

"Yup."

"What was said? Can you recall?"

"He said his dad was working on project Marvin and had put code on the Marvin Central Repository."

"Did it sound more like Maven Central Repository?"

Ted closes his eyes, "One of the girls shouted as he said that word but I think you might be right."

"Oh shhh-ugar cubes." 'George, can you and David wander over and listen into my conversation?'

'Sure, give me a moment.'

Mattie smiles at the kids, "How is school generally? Everything going okay?"

"I guess."

"How about you Jessica?"

"Fine thank you Mrs Elster-Hawkins."

"And you Susie?"

"Yes thank you Mattie."

"Good.. Open Source is generally better because it's not hidden away behind closed doors. If you find something wrong or not as good as you'd like you can get the source, fix or update it, or find someone to do it for you."

"What's source? Like ketchup or salad cream?"

"Ha, nice, we've got plenty of those about if you're hungry Susie. When programmers say source they're being lazy. They mean Source Code."

"What's code?"

"Oh boy. Let's start at the very beginning."

Susie smiles and sings, "It's a very good place to start."

"Yes, no doe-ray-me in this story though. A very clever group of people at Bell Labs made and perfected something called the Transistor. It's like a little electronic switch. Like the switch for your bedroom light but you switch it with a little electricity not a finger. Shrink them down small.."

"Like in Ant Man?"

".. more like make them very very very small in the first place."

"Okay."

"Make them small and you can put a lot of them together in a small space, which is then called a chip. Wired to each other in clever ways the transistors start working together and following instructions. Instructions we call machine code."

"Okay so far I think."

"That code working at the machine level tells the chip to do things. Only it's very basic instructions to do simple things like add two simple numbers together, move to a different instruction. David spent years mastering machine code for two types of chips. And a lot of different chips do things differently. Most people want to write in something simpler that saves them lots of time working at that level. And they want to write in a language that _all_ 'of the chips can run."

"Okayyyy."

"I'm losing you. Lets try something. If I tell you take a step forward, turn right ninety degrees, step forward, turn left, step, turn left again you'll have stepped out a shape. If we call that _moves_ and I then say _do moves four times_ you'll have stepped out a plus shape."

Jeff does the three steps with turns, "Like that?"

"And repeat that three more times."

He steps fast, "And I'm back where I started."

"And stepped out a plus shape. And I shared the instructions openly, you all had the chance to hear them. If I call doing the move four times _Draw Plus_ I could give Jessica some instructions like _sing your name, draw plus, pat your head and tummy_ she could do it."

"Would you like me to?"

"Only if you want to."

They watch as she sings "Jessica", does the steps and pats her head and tummy. "You're funny."

"Funny haha or funny weird?"

"Both."

"Thanks, not many people are brave enough to say that." she sees David, Isobel, David and Samantha wander over. "Now a number of people here know about the instructions for Draw Plus, but it's not true open source as people not at our party don't know about it. Back in 2010 I think, the Maven Central Repository was created. Anyone can publish their code into it. It's like a giant library for the whole of planet Earth. Only it stores sets of code not books."

Jeff nods a little, "So if I was a coder I could get out your draw plus instead of writing the instructions myself?"

"Bingo! That's it exactly. This Open Source AI Project called Marvin on the Maven Central Repository allows others to use AI in their projects without having to start from scratch. People can add and fix things to help it get better."

"Like what?"

"Um, how about a smart fridge you can ask to order milk when you've run out?"

"And butter?"

"If it's been trained to understand the word butter, yes."

"Cool."

'Mattie.'

'Yes George?'

'I've had a look at the project, it's so basic it's like Odin before he had anything other than a text input and would spend seconds searching his fact store. I wouldn't worry about it, it's written in Java not machine code, it's decades behind. It can answer questions but it's far from sentient.'

'Thank frig. Thanks for checking.' "Kids, when you get home install The Foos Coding 5 Plus app on your phone or tablet and have a play, it will help you start thinking about coding. It might look a bit babyish but stick with it."

~~~

Toby and Holly-Anne find Sophie, "How's the dance studio Soph?"

Sophie beams, "Brilliant! We've got a family of doves living there! There's a little bit of unused land at the back, we'll make it a little garden and put a dove house in the middle."

"And the building itself?"

"It's cleaning up okay, the floor's being given a sand this afternoon. One of the James helped mend the roof, we've got heaters and a warehouse fan drying out the wall. The changing rooms and smaller dance studio upstairs need a major overhaul but they're an okay size."

"Sweet, any kids signed up yet?"

"Mattie started putting a sign up on the screen at the end of her lectures, we've got a small number."

Holly-Anne tickles Kirk, "It's good starting small, you can control how fast it expands and how many lessons you run."


	34. Chapter 34

Sophie watches Cindy's expression change. "Everything okay?"

"Yes, sorry, just answered a head bump about the dresses."

"Dresses? Is this a Gem's Gems event?"

"Of sorts. EVERYONE! If you could grab a drink and make your way to the auditorium."

Sophie holds back, "LFW must have been good, that's the most assertive I've seen her. Ever."

Mattie is the first through the doors, races up onto the stage, "Ladies? Is this Gem's Gems?"

Mia pops her head out between two curtains, "Spoilers! Go take a seat!"

"Mia?"

"Take a seat."

"Why does your skin have the nice sheen you get when.."

"SEAT! NOW!"

"Okay, okay, don't get your knickers in a bunch!"

As Mattie makes herself comfortable in a front row seat next to Leo she watches George pass a cord to Cindy, point up to the ceiling. "Looks like all four of the dresses will be revealed at the same time."

"Not a car then, unless it's really small."

"You could fit one in there Bunny, just. Maybe they're all sat inside?"

They watch as David, George, Pete and Tim are given large bouquets of flowers.

"Odd. Why are they carrying flowers?"

"Wouldn't you like flowers Angel?"

"Sure Bunny, but how do flowers fit in to a dress reveal?"

"Maybe they're the next collection?"

Cindy turns and beams, "I had a request to make something a little different, not that different, still stylish and easy to wear, a new _growing_ collection for Gem's Gems." she pulls the cord.

There's a lot of gasps from the fab women.

'Oh my frigging God! They look like they're fourteen weeks!'

'Mia!'

'All of them Leo! In new bodies. I frigging knew that sheen!"

'Five becomes nine! Don't ask.'

"I'd like you all to congratulate all four of our beautiful models, Isobel, Karen, Mia and Samantha, the ladies behind the new _Maternity Collection_!"

People are initially stunned, then start to join the four on stage.

Leo grabs Mattie's hand, "Now is as good a time as any, come on."

He leads her to Mia, congratulates her and gets a few details, then slips away with Mattie. "She'll be busy chatting for ages, follow me."

"Where are we going?"

"You'll see."

"Leo?"

"I've been holding a secret, waiting for the right time.. keep up."

"Since when?"

"Since London Fashion Week."

"Why didn't you tell me at the time?"

"Because you'd have been distracted."

As they race down the steps Leo calls out, "Bart! Doors open please!"

"Okay."

"Find the fastest route to the factory please."

"The new bypass opened three weeks ago. It's not very scenic."

"We don't care, I want to get there fast, do something then get back here fast."

Leo is in and buckled up in the drivers seat.

"Okay. Would you like me to drive Leo?"

"Please."

Mattie's seatbelt clicks and Bart starts to reverse as the door is closing.

"Mattie looks confused, you look excited Leo, what's happening?"

"Spoilers!"

Bart's dash changes to an emoji. "Since you're in such a good mood, in France you promised me a storage upgrade."

"I did. I've been thinking. What if I asked Danny to make you a new system? Not just a box under the back but a long chassis that ran the entire length, used his design that allows inactive CPU to be shut down. It can support _very_ large amounts of storage. And I said I'd get you a satellite uplink so you can always be online."

"That would be great!"

"You're in an unusually good mood Bunny, what's going on?"

"Unusually good?"

"Way more happier than your usual happy self."

"You'll see."


	35. Chapter 35

With no cameras and Bart breaking speed limits when nobody else was about they're at the factory fast and running up the steps.

"Hello Leo, Mattie."

"Hi James. Are the Angel build machines still being guarded?"

"Yes, James is still there, one of the others dragged a three-phase over for him."

Leo had already passed and doesn't turn, "Excellent! Thank whoever did that for me please!"

"Will do."

Mattie arrives at the machines a moment later, sees him tapping the last of the password, "Danny gave you his login?"

"Nope. He didn't hide what he was typing." he taps away opening a few console terminal windows. In one he types 'ping google.com' and taps return. In another he opens a configuration file. In a third he enters a command to list the contents of a folder. He steps back and motions towards the panel.

Mattie frowns and looks at them. "Echo replies?"

"Danny hooked it up to the Internet to download some Linux patches."

"And a destination IP address? What's that address? I don't recognise it."

"Type ifconfig."

She does so and her eyes open wide, "No way!"

"Look at the last window."

"Oh. My. Frigging. _GOD_!"

Fab memories flood her mind and her hand visibly shakes as she raises a finger to scroll the third window back. The directories listed were in date order, newest at the bottom. She almost didn't dare to look. But there they were, at the top of the list. A1 and L1SYNTH.

"Brilliant right?"

She turns and throws her arms around him, tears flooding down her face, "THANK GOD FOR FUCKUPS! Thank you Bunny!"

"Who'd have guessed?"

"You clearly. Thank God Danny forgot to disconnect the cable. Thank God it's VPN and firewall self protected. Thank God the config became part of their fact store. My only question is why _the fuck_ didn't one of the other angels say?"

Leo shrugs, "We built them, maybe they assumed we'd know?"

"We were looking for Angels in all the wrong places."

"Yeah, _Angel Hosting_ sites. Kind of ironic."

Mattie shakes her head slightly, "Moronic more like."

Leo minimised the three windows and taps an icon starting the main application. "One L1 and A1 resurrection coming up."

Mattie laughs, "I'm going to get a sign made for the bottom of Fred's statue."

"Saying?"

"Live. Love. Laugh. And have someone remember where you put your backup!"

"Not frigging backup? It doesn't sound like a quote from you without it."

"Okay, frigging backup."

They watch the progress bar as the build gets underway. With no skin to cure the build process would be fast.

~~~

"Buns, I think my protege just made herself known."

"Really? Who?"

"Jeff's sweetheart Jessica. She was badass enough to say I was funny haha and funny weird. Kids outside of the immediate family never dare. She was downloading an app I told them about before we'd finished talking. It's a big app that doesn't install over mobile, so she'd clearly already got her phone on the guest WiFi."

"Haha, you've got a mini-me. Think Jeff would be mine?"

"In a heartbeat. He's in love. I think he'd do anything to be by her side."

"Sweet. What about Ted and Susie?"

"Not sure, she didn't show much interest. I'll invite the four along to a private lecture and see how they respond."


	36. Chapter 36

Leo puts an arm around her shoulder and gives a gentle squeeze, "We need to get this thing backing up the backups to the servers at other sites. That nickname Toby picked for the new site was quite appropriate."

"Deep Thought?"

"Yeah, deep underground, an archive of minds."

"Like a library."

He gives another squeeze, "I did a lot of reading when I was growing up. We had quite a library at the house. Such a shame it went up in smoke. Did you learn about libraries when you were at school?"

"We had one, we were told about the Dewey Decimal System, not a lot else."

"Nothing of the great libraries in history?"

"No."

"So if I said Library of Alexandria?"

"Nothing."

"The Great Library, established 3rd century BC, was one of the largest and most significant libraries of the ancient world until the Roman conquest of Egypt in 30 BC. It wasn't just collections of works, it had lecture halls, meeting rooms, and gardens."

"Did you just recall that from a memory of a page?"

"Yes, in my handwriting, Niska set me homework."

Mattie raises her eyebrows, she'd love to have seen that. "We've got the gardens at Petit Anges. And our small one at Sentinel. We've got a lecture hall. Google and others have been scanning the worlds printed books for years, we could never compete with that."

"No need to compete. Compliment."

"What do you mean?"

"The way people interact with online media is less than ideal. But if you gave more people access to your VR system.. Imagine, being able to walk among the likes of Einstein, have him explain his theory of relativity, talk to the great Greek philosophers. Or have an engineer show how turbines work in a 3D cut-away you could never do in the real world. Not just a pre-rendered animation but something interactive."

"In a library?"

"What is a library if not an archive of knowledge or stories?"

Mattie leans her head on his shoulder, "I guess so. The world's expanded from books to include so many other forms of media. Think they're missing us yet?"

"Maybe. Or they might be wrapped up in baby talk."

Mattie picked up on his tone, "Not happy for them?"

"Yes. But I've mixed emotions. Mia doesn't want to give her secret recipe to others saying it's about population growth, yet she's bringing another into the world. A synth baby. If it's like us it will want to eat. How does that help the planet?"

"We don't eat as much as them."

"Sure we do."

"You might think so, but we don't."

"Breakfast, lunch, dinner?"

"You, Danny, Ems and I do, possibly George. Tommy and Clare's father. But that's habit from being a fab in the past. And we do skip a lot of meals. The others eat occasionally to be social, sometimes for their own enjoyment. But they use the charge coil too."

"What about Odi and his egg cooking every morning?"

"That's one meal. And it's hardly a large one."

"True."

"What the hell?" the progress bar had done a massive jump to the right. "How does that work?"

Leo closed his eyes, found the code in their software archive and gave it a scan. "Ah. It's phase linked. The first build machines did a lot in series, this one parallels a lot. And from the notes in the code.. Danny updated the shell builder after developing a new vacuum forming process with Joe to make car parts for Jeff's models. Wasn't expecting that!"

"Dad helped update the build? He didn't say anything."

"There's a video in the archive, it's interesting to see how they manage to make the head from one sheet. The former comes together like it was sliced into Jenga bricks. To get it out the middle ones are pulled from the neck, then the next layer and so on until the outer ones are removed. Then the carbon-fibre machine goes up through the neck and starts spraying."

"Spraying? No laminating sheets?"

"You should watch the video, Toby too, the long fibre thread is pulled into the back of the spray gun head, thrown out the front with the resin."

"How? Wouldn't resin come out the other side?"

"The resin is fired from tiny jets all pointed at the thread. Your Dad's doing the demonstration so I guess he invented it."

"You dark horse Dad!"

"Since you lot put that garage together he's really found his creative spark. What amazes me is the scales he can work on. Those massive benches and tables for the garden one moment, tiny things like this another. You see him in the office and the image he projects is quite deceptive, you'd never expect that side to him."

"Talking of deceptive image. The build machines look small from here. It's like looking at the end of a train face on. It could be a single carriage or almost a kilometre long."

"It's a good analogy, only our carriage has the tracks on the inside to get the parts back and forth to the many tools."

"Why didn't they make it like a car production line, lots of industrial robots bringing the tools to the line?"

"Space. Doing it this way they could cram a lot more in."

"But it's not as if we're tight on space?"

"Not here, no. But if Danny wanted to move one it could sit on one of those low loader lorries."

"Move one where?"

"Anywhere."

~~~

After a long silence Mattie lifts her head off his shoulder, "I think they'll definitely have missed us by now Bunny."

"Possibly, add the return drive and.."

The progress bar jumps to 100 percent and there's a rush of air as the doors start to open.

Mattie is shaking, "OMG! They're ready!"

The doors open wide and A1 and L1SYNTH open their eyes.

"Mattie? What the frig? Why am I back here?"

"Hi you, let's just say you used the last resort. Both of you."

"Frack! Not a Hobb?"

"I'm afraid so L1."

"At Petits Anges?"

"Yup. It's why the hacked Eddy was so keen to find Niska. Hobb wanted a way in that he could use more slowly against me."

"And how's Eddy now?"

"Back to normal and Hobb free thankfully."

Leo feels his pockets for his keys, "Let's get to the car, we've got a big surprise for you at Sentinel, you'll be a big surprise for them."


	37. Chapter 37

Bart gets them to Sentinel House as Mia, Tim, Niska and Odi are putting on their crash helmets, Karen and Pete are getting into their car.

"Oh for frig's sake! It can't be over already!" Mattie jumps out before Bart is fully stopped, "Where are you all going?"

"Giving Daniel and Emily some space."

Mattie looks around and realises a lot of cars were missing. "Crap. Who's still about?"

"Toby, Holly-Anne's taken the kids home, is looking after Ted and Jeff."

"Anyone else?"

"George and Isobel, David and Samantha are in the garden."

"Anyone else?"

Mia shakes her head.

"What on earth happened?"

"Someone made the mistake of mentioning their Bad Dad's idea, Emily made a comment and Danny flipped."

"Danny? If anyone flipped I would have expected it to be Ems."

Mattie heads to the front door.

Niska calls after her, "Beware of flying plates, they did a Nic at one point."

"Thanks, I will. Say hello to A1 and L1 before you go."

"WHAT!"

"We'd been looking in the wrong places for their backups." she presses the doorbell and turns to see the six of them all gathering around Bart who'd lowered his windows. Mia is talking and running a hand over her bump.

The door is opened by Samantha, her face hidden behind a colander that still had bits of pasta stuck to it. There's a frying pan over her belly.

"What the hell?"

"I don't mind skin packs anywhere, just not the face. And baby needs protecting."

Samantha steps aside and Mattie sees fragments of crockery all up the hall.

"Oh my mod! Where are they now?"

"Danny's upstairs, Emily's in the garden."

"DANNY! IT'S ME MATTIE, I'M COMING UP!"

~~~

She finds Danny sat on the floor in a corner of the room. His left forearm had a blue stained tea towel wrapped around it, there were several small cuts to his face.

He looks up at her then back to the floor.

"What happened Danny?"

"Ask Emily."

"I'm asking you. I want to hear it from both sides."

Danny resumes his staring at the floor.

"Don't you want to fix this?"

Silence.

"Daniel Candlin I'm asking you a question."

"You're not my mother."

"No, she left with the others because she didn't want to be hit by flying plates. It's not exactly the way to behave in front of your parents now is it?"

"I've had enough."

"Of Emily?"

"Everything."

"You can't mean that.."

"Why not? Why can't a man be depressed? Why should that be for women only?"

Mattie stood in silence for a moment thinking about recent events, then got down and sat on the floor. "Depressed? What have you got to be depressed about?"

"See, you're just like the others.."

"Hold up. Remember you're talking to Mrs PTSD here, I'm trying to understand your problem to see if I can help."

"Put the clock back then, to when DCL was just a little business running out of Mum and Dad's."

"You know I can't do that."

"Then you're not helping."

"And you're not helping yourself by flipping out and having a plate fight then not sharing. If you're depressed you've sure put a frigging good mask on to hide it."

"Can you not use that word?"

"Which?"

"Your F word."

"Alright. Is that the root of the problem?"

"Sort of."

"F.. lipping hell Dan. Have you spoken to her about it?"

"I've tried, the subject is always changed."

"When did you last talk about it? Other than today?"

"Maybe a month ago."

"So how's it a problem?"

"Niska's hardly ever here, I've got hundreds of her James to keep an eye on, emails to keep up to date with from clients, a ton of messages to read on the app, suppliers to keep on top of. Any minute I'm not looking at something for DCL she wants me in the bedroom. I can't cope anymore!"

Mattie looks at him with initial disbelief. "Okay.. do you know Emily is looking for help to lower her sex drive?"

"No? Since when?"

"Just before I left with Leo."

"Oh shit. I think I've made a huge mistake."

"What do you mean?"

"I got the wrong end of the stick and flipped at her. In a really bad way."

"And as for the other stuff, filter the app so only the bits you care about are notified, you don't have to read all of it. Ask Ms Sumners to help filter important emails out. Create a Stores Manager role and ask a James to volunteer to fill it. Hell create a MUS management structure so there's a reporting line. Then go take a break for Dan's sake."

He sighs, "You're right. As you are most of the time. I've been wanting too much control, wanting everything to be perfect."

"Stuff perfect. There aren't enough hours in the day. Use what I use."

"And what's that?"

"The good-enough to be finished test."

"I'll try."

"You know they say make-up sex is some of the best? Sorry, shouldn't rub it in."

~~~

Mattie persuades Danny to go to the garden with her, George and David are at a laptop, Emily connected.

George smiles slightly, "Sorry Dan, I accept a lot of the blame. In tweaking the build process to cope with Emily's somewhat unique body shape I made an error."

"You did?"

He turns the laptop to show a 3D model. "The sensor wires should fan out like this." Mattie, Leo and Toby stand by their friend's side. "Instead in Emily it's like this." he alt-tab switches quickly to an identically positioned model. It had very different sensor density distribution from the lowest spine connector downwards."

"Oh. My. God! Ems, how do you even manage to get up in the mornings!"

"With a lot of determination Mattie, a hell of a lot of determination."

"Why the .. hell didn't you say something?"

She looks at George and tears start to flow.

George frowns and wonders if it was something else he'd done. He does a long search as her top starts to get wet from all the tears. Even Toby is shedding a few, the sight of his distressed friend upsetting him.

Emily's tanks must be close to empty having soaked her top when George palms his forehead, "Oh my dear Emily I'm so sorry!"

Mattie creases her's right up, "George?"

Isobel echo's the "George?"

"It was something I said years ago."

"What?"

"When we'd been constantly redesigning the new bodies after the crash."

"What did you say?"

"You should remember, Leo, Danny and yourself were there."

"Remind me."

"If we told you how many times we've gotten to this point and had to start again you wouldn't believe it. We needed you ALL to be perfect.. I guess Emily lied to prevent us having to start again."

Emily bursts into full on tears, struggles to talk through the crying, "I'm so so sorry! I realised the teenagers in the room were Matthew and Leona."

She's in the middle of a large group hug in seconds, "It's not your fault Emily, it's all mine. I shouldn't have made the design error and I certainly shouldn't have put pressure on you to keep issues quiet."

Danny wipes tears of his own away, "Sorry I snapped at you Ems."

Emily wipes her face with the palms of her hands, "Sorry I've been so demanding Danny. David, George, can I have the updated HAL please?" she turns to see Mia cautiously leading the group into the garden, "And the next time you update designs can you get rid of this stupidly narrow waist and give me child bearing hips?"

Danny does a choking laugh, "Are you saying.."

"I want the mummy mod? Yes. With my issue resolved I won't be suffering in silence."

Niska frowns, "Suffering?"

"Ever since my early teens I've had an itch that could never be properly scratched. I'll finally have a cure." the group spreads out, "OMG! A1! L1! You're back!"


	38. Chapter 38

The taxi pulls up by the factory steps.

"That'll be forty five pounds love."

Laura hands over a bunch of notes, "Keep the change."

The phone is held at arms length as the taxi leaves, the statue in the background. She posts an image on Instagram, adding the caption 'Whittier Whitmore couldn't get Whitemore today. Head to toe in white, about to drive my DCL converted White 911. SO EXCITED!'

She looks at the statue for a while, thinks about her own situation. She needed to see George soon.

The keys are pulled from her small handbag as she walks towards the hanger. There was no James to be seen outside. The hanger doors were open and it was obvious Gerti wasn't home. She gets to the entrance and sees the 911 parked close to the front corner, a big note stuck to the windscreen.

She does as fast a walk as her skirt will allow, looks at the inside of the windscreen, "Blow the horn when you're here." she leans in and presses it hard. It wasn't the usual horn but a deafening airhorn that makes her jump. "Jesus Mary and Joseph!"

There's the sound of hollow feet hitting the floor and she spins around, "Are you all trying to give me a heart attack!"

"Sorry, we were sat up on the roof chatting." A2 and A3 fold their wings in a little.

"How'd you get up there?"

"The service ladder on the back wall outside. James needed to go for a recharge so we took over. Danny gave you the keys then?"

"He did, said I'm to take it easy."

"Very easy. If the seat didn't have a head rest you could go from 0 to angel with the press of a foot."

"0 to angel?"

"You'd snap your neck."

"Oh! That sounds dangerous!"

"Which is why he's upgraded the seats. They're like the active ones he built for Iain."

Laura opens the door and gets in, spends a while trying to work out where the levers were to adjust the seat position. She gives up, "How do I move the seat forward? Danny's taller than me."

"He didn't tell you?"

"No."

"It's automatic. Put your hands on the wheel after you turn on the power."

Laura does so. The radio comes on, "Laura Whitmore detected. Adjusting."

The seat starts to slide forward and seat back raise a little.

"How?"

"You've been in the 3D scanner for the dresses right? It knows your body shape and size. You should be feeling the seat form around you a little."

Laura does a pout and eyebrow raise, this was a bit more personal than she'd expected. "Okay. Now what?"

"Hit the engine button on the centre of the dash. Remember the noises are all sound effects not the real thing. It's got tyres like Gerti-Mia too so wheel spin won't happen."

"Aw, so I can't do donuts?"

"Sorry, safety first."

"Oh well."

She presses the button and does a little hand clap as things roar into life. "Hehe!" she wriggles her skirt up a bit and puts down the clutch, "Okay, here goes a Whitmore."

She pulls away nicely and clears the hanger doors, turns onto the runway and presses down on the accelerator. It throws her back into the seat as the unique engine design of Joe's rockets the thing down the runway. By the time she's realised just how much ground she's covered and she should be lifting her foot not pressing down harder it's too late. Breaking hard she's about to leave the runway for the bumpy grass. The trees aren't that far ahead.

Full of adrenaline her life flashes before her eyes, she's saying her prayers and whispers "God help me!"

The bonnet splits down the middle and a giant airbag inflates. The seat morphs to hold her to it, she feels something at her forehead.

There's a bang, a horrible whine and incredible deceleration force. The car comes to a rapid halt. The airbag deflates and gets pulled back into the bonnet.

Laura has her eyes closed and body shaking. She'd not seen any of it.

A2 comes to a skidding halt by the passenger door. "Are you okay?"

"I think my whites might need washing." with the seat getting back to normal she leans forward and kisses the steering wheel, "OMG the car saved me! I thought I was a goner for sure. What was that horrid noise?"

"That was the bolt being fired into the runway and the drag wire spinning up the electronic break. It's a one shot. Danny will need the car back to reset things. And Danny's forward thinking saved you. He thought fabs might need a bit of trial and error to get used to so much power."

"He's welcome to have it back. It needs the power taming a bit before I try again. A big bit."

It's a good ten minutes before her hands stop shaking and she's comfortable enough to move. She gets out and rests her bottom on the side of the car, pulls a sideways face and takes another snap and types, "Whitmore scared witless! DCL conversions are FLIPPIN FAST! If you love F&F check them out! Enough for one day, need to go do some washing xx"

A2 holds a hand out, "I'll pass the keys to Danny, Porsha can get herself back into the hanger."

"She? Porsha? It's got an AI?"

"Partial, intelligent GPS auto parking and emergency protocols. You could have full AI in there if Danny upgraded the system to something bigger."

"You know a lot about it?"

"We hung around when he did the first test. Quite literarily." she slides her cover open and beams an image onto the side of the car. It was a first person view looking at A3, they were both holding onto the frame of the car, wings partially out getting a tow.

"How fast was that?"

"Not as fast as you just went I think."

"So how fast?"

"140. Miles per hour."

"How fast do you think I went?"

"160 maybe 170?"

"In first gear?"

"Yes."

Laura feels light headed and slides down the door to the grass. "I want the AI, a guardian angel at the wheel. Something to watch over me."

"Good. If you have a system like Bart it will have cameras so it can detect problems starting and take evasive action before you're even aware of them."

"I'm sold. Can someone get me a taxi please? And an appointment with George for me and Gemma?"


	39. Chapter 39

Mattie puts her phone on the sideboard and grins, "Laura's messaged to say she's back home and got her washing done. Apparently Porsha gave her a bit of a fright." she picks up one of the many weekly magazines and flicks quickly through the pages. Microsoft had a picture of her at her Slate sat outside a restaurant. Another firm to write to asking for a charitable donation to the foundation.

Leo glances over at the magazine and smiles, "George messaged earlier to say the Angel Builders now have a sync job copying the data to other sites."

"Good news." she quickly flicks through the rest of the pages and does the same to three others, makes a note to call Samsung and Apple. They're all dropped to the floor. She wriggles onto her side, "Toby's taken Eurostar back out to PA with the family, Danny's taken Ems out there too. He's promised to give the James new titles and a reporting structure so they can have a proper break and chill out."

Leo wriggles onto his side and plays with her hair, "Good. Their melt down was quite a shock."

Mattie giggles, "I shouldn't laugh, but Samantha with her kitchen utensil protection, what a priceless picture!"

"I can't say I blame her, did you see the mess a broken plate did to Danny's arm?"

"No? Was it bad? I know he'd lost some fluid."

"Even with Fred's best procedures he'll have a nasty scar. He wants to keep it like that as a reminder."

"Of the fight?"

Leo rubs a finger over her fading ink, "Yes. How he came close to losing everything. What other updates have you had this week?"

"Lots! Francesco has agreed on one of Evelyn's designs. They're waiting for the materials order to be shipped. Iain's got another pair of those long boots for Sally, in a light brown ready for Cindy's autumn collection. And he's got the foundations funds growing nicely. Petits Anges is going to be able to hire world class staff and provide children care for free."

"Awesome. Is the Hobb count any better?"

"Three more since Eddy. L1 thinks he's spotted a pattern, hopefully he's not suffering from apophenia."

"Thanks a bunch! He is a fork of me!"

"And forks diverge."

"Yes, but not losing skills like that."

"With more Angels and bikes running off the line from tomorrow hopefully we'll catch them faster than the Hobb copies can replicate themselves." she runs her fingers through his hair, "Teeny's holding her open day for the dance school on the 28th, stick it in your diary."

"Cool, I bet she's excited."

"Yeah." she smiles and gives him a peck on the lips, "We've got three hospitals now, France, England and Antigua. The stunt for London Fashion Week got me thinking. You know when Fred had the mobile operating theatre taken to the roadside?"

"Yes?"

"We could go one better. That Elysium idea of Danny's is decades off. But the shuttles that land at the end of the film with the medicare robots, we could do something like that. A Boeing CH-47 Chinook would be ideal."

Leo goes online and does a search, "How many were you thinking of getting?"

"The foundation buys one I match it with another."

"38.5 millions dollars?"

"And I'm naming mine Peggy in memory of her investment advice. Those first payments from Danny were the seeds to a fortune I don't need. Even with low interest rates it's growing faster than I expected. I'm not about to do an Iain and turn my back on everything, but I'm putting a lot more of my surplus cash to better use."

"I'll name mine George then. For bringing the four of us back."

"You're matching too? Oh Bunny that's wonderful, thanks!"

"On the subject of our doing things with surplus cash, I think World Vision have put two and two together and worked out that the email aliases are for us. We might as well come clean and admit we're sponsoring several thousand children around the world."

She wriggles forward a little and gives him a long kiss. When she rolls back slightly and sees his face he's frowning a little. "Bunny?"

"Medicare robots. They could run from a far smaller core than ours. Have a body more like an angel. And that body could be made from recycled parts. If we had a build machine as long as the inside of a Chinook it could have a metals and plastic grinder at one end. With a supply of eye and core parts onboard it could fly in and make a number of medicare synths to leave behind, fly onto the next place that needs them."

"What would they do for power? Go old school and use old car batteries?"

"It was a silly idea, forget it."

"No, it was a great idea Buns, just needs a little brainstorming. An Angel has a lot of air inside right? Mostly empty arms and legs?"

"No fluid, yes."

"So it would be easier to fly out with the current builder and a load of raw materials. The wiki page says they can carry 33-55 troops. Call it 40 Angels. I reckon if the build machine and supplies were packed in you could make way more than 40."

"From my calculations closer to one hundred. And if the solar PV panels were put on the sides, minus the backing tile, Joe and Danny did a conversion to electric it wouldn't need fuel stops. When it got low it could be plugged into a source or just sit in the sun for a while."

Mattie licks her top teeth deep in thought, sucks some air, "Rather than do a conversion I reckon we should get Boeing over and team up. Get our top minds and theirs together."

"Who'd fly them? We only know one decent helicopter pilot. If we packed one with a build machine and enough cores to build one hundred angels that's an insane amount of investment to put in the hands of a less experienced pilot."

Mattie rolls to the side of the bed, grabs her phone and rolls back, starts a call.

She smiles at Leo as it rings and rings, "Hi Ronald! Good thanks and you? Glad to hear it! Yes. You said to ask if there was anything we needed. Um, it's a big ask. You've met the family and know our history. How do you feel about being replicated to fly a fleet of medicare Chinooks? You would? Awesome! .. Yes, yes we could do that, no problem. No, stay where you are, we'll fly out to see you." she hangs up, "In return for a few pilots for us he's asked for a couple for his business."

"Sounds like a fair trade."

"What's Gerti up to I wonder? MJN or Virgin Atlantic?"

"MJN if they're fully rested."

"Pack a bag then Bunnykins."

"Now? You want to go now?"

"Why what did you want to do?"

"Lie here and gaze into my wife's beautiful eyes."

She chuckles, "And I know where that would end up. I'll call Carolyn. You can gaze into my eyes on Gerti. Come on, get up and pack. Our next adventure starts right now."


End file.
